A social media user was brutally trolled for claiming that space travel is “distinctly Christian” after an Artemis II astronaut shared an Easter message celebrating “the beauty of creation.”
The astronauts on the Artemis II mission began their journey on Wednesday (April 1), with the crew bound for a 10-day mission around the Moon.
The historic mission aims to collect data and imagery from deep space and set the stage for a future Moon landing. The four astronauts will circle the Moon, traveling farther into space than anyone before.
Image credits: NASA
Taking to X, a user named Marcus Pittman shared a video of an Easter message delivered by Victor Glover from the Orion spacecraft and wrote, “Atheists really hate how distinctly Christian space travel is.”
He added, “Astronauts read Genesis orbiting the moon (Apollo 8), took communion on the lunar surface (Aldrin), Psalms from the moon (Irwin), Bibles to the ISS (Glover), now Artemis II. We are so back.”
Image credits: NASA/Jessica Meir
The post was met with criticism, with many people questioning the strict association between Christianity and space travel, as well as Marcus’ suggestion that atheists “hate” Christians traveling into space.
“Lol, how? None of those things prove your point…. Why did the church claim science was demonic back in the day?” one user asked.
“Just making up nonsense lol. I’m an atheist, and I love what they’re doing and fully support it, even when they speak about their god,” expressed someone else.
“I have never thought of space travel in religious terms,” shared another user.
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“Did you know every major religion/atheist/agnostic has been represented in space, and held religious ceremonies in space?” one person chimed in.
A separate user called the post “the most backwards thinking I’ve seen today,” while others asked Marucs to “do some research.”
On Saturday (April 4), on the eve of Easter, Glover was asked in a CBS News interview whether the crew had “a message you’d like to share from space about Easter Sunday.”
Image credits: NASA Video
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The mission pilot admitted he didn’t have anything prepared but went on to deliver a message describing Earth as a divine creation. But he also emphasized a sense of togetherness regardless of religion, addressing both believers and non-believers.
“I think these observances are important. As we are so far from Earth and looking at the beauty of creation, I think, for me, one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see the Earth as one thing,” Glover said.
“When I read the Bible, and I look at all the amazing things that were done for us… You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe and the cosmos.
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“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special, but we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you — just trust me — you are special.
“In all of this emptiness — this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together,” he said of Earth.
Image credits: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
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He added, “I think, as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing, and that we’ve gotta get through this together.”
After the message, many netizens drew parallels between Artemis II and Apollo 8. During the 1968 mission, which also looped around the Moon’s far side, the crew delivered a Christmas Eve message and read the first 10 verses of the Book of Genesis.
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While we’ve come a long way since the Catholic Church put Galileo Galilei on trial for promoting the theory that the Sun is at the center of our solar system, it’s not true that only Catholic astronauts have contributed to our understanding of space.
In 1985, Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud became the first Saudi Arabian citizen and the first Muslim to travel into space. He flew on the space shuttle Discovery as part of a seven-member international crew and took part in the deployment of the satellite ARABSAT-1B.
Image credits: NASA
Decades later, in 1996, astronaut Dr. Jeff Hoffman, NASA’s first Jewish male astronaut, brought a small Torah scroll aboard the space shuttle Columbia and read from the Book of Genesis while passing over Jerusalem.
Additionally, Kalpana Chawla, who identified as Hindu, was the first Indian American astronaut and first Indian woman to travel to space. She took her first flight aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1997.
Ellison Onizuka, born in Hawaii to Japanese American parents, made history in 1985 when he flew on the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the first Buddhist to reach space.
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