Mars One

[SNP1]

Now that the Mars One mission is down to 700 finalists, I think it is a good time to ask this question. Do you think that religion should play a part in who gets chosen? Do you think atheists should have some priority for being sent to Mars?

I have heard some people say that religion should stay on Earth, and that we should send only atheists to Mars for the Mars One mission.

I have heard others say that religion will play a crucial part with the dangers that will be faced during the Mars One mission.

What is your opinion?

[dtq123]

Why should us good atheists die? 
Let the theists go!
Broadcast their lives on national television!

[Jason78]

Do you think that religion should play a part in who gets chosen? Do you think atheists should have some priority for being sent to Mars?

No, and no.

The people that are picked should be picked on their merits. 

[kilodelta]

Yeah. It should be based on merits. Though, it'd be interesting to see how an Islamic fellow would try to pray towards Mecca...

[Atheon]

Do you think that religion should play a part in who gets chosen? Do you think atheists should have some priority for being sent to Mars?

I say send all the fundies to Mars.

[SGOS]

This reminds me of the movie, Contact, where only one human could be sent in the machine to meet the aliens, and there was this huge political debate about whether that person needed to believe in God.  As ridiculous as that part of the movie was, I think it managed to capture the political folly that is the essence of mankind today.  Rob Lowe excels at nailing the sleazy evangelical, bullying the process, and puffing himself up as someone overly intoxicated with a belief in his own importance.

[GSOgymrat]

Mars One is completely unrealistic. I can't take it seriously.

[Youssuf Ramadan]

I say send all the fundies to Mars.

This gets my vote!   

[Hydra009]

I have heard some people say that religion should stay on Earth

I'm not at all convinced it's a good fit for Earth, either.

[Desdinova]

Nah, send Giorgio.

[stromboli]

They did an episode of the Simpsons where they convinced everyone the world was going to end and then had a group of celebrities board a rocket to escape earth, along with Homer and Bart. Turned out to be a bogus deal to get rid of people they didn't want- Rosie O'Donnell comes to mind- and sent them into the sun.

Something similar might be of use now. Get the republicans on a rocket headed for Mars by way of the Andromeda galaxy, for example.

[Munch]

Something similar might be of use now. Get the republicans on a rocket headed for Mars by way of the Andromeda galaxy, for example.

I still don't like the idea of spreading out republican and christian mentality across the cosmos like that. Last thing I ever want for any other intelligent life out there is to be confronted by orange skinned waxworks and child molesters as representing our race.

[trdsf]

I have heard others say that religion will play a crucial part with the dangers that will be faced during the Mars One mission.

Well, I wish them all the luck in the world trying to pray away an air leak.  I think sending a fundamentalist -- anyone who lets their religious opinion trump science and observation -- of any stripe would be a mistake.  Other than that, well, there are plenty of scientists who have religious beliefs, and are able to keep the two magisteria from overlapping.  No objection to religious people going, as long as they're not going just to be the voice of religion.

[Cocoa Beware]

They are going to use their imaginations to rocket themselves to Mars and literally believe it really happened like Calvin and Hobbes.

[stromboli]

There was this British sci fi movie in the 50's about an alien creature that took over a chemical plant. They tried to kill it by pumping some kind of chemical into the plant. The monster countered by stuffing human bodies into the pipes. Might work with fundies. Spring a leak, stuff a fundie into it.