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tration (NASA) budget, cost over–
runs on such inner-space programs
as the earth shuttle are forcing a
reorientation of the entire space
program.
Directors of the unmanned space
effort want to see it continued , of .
course. They are encouraged by
what they perceive as a growing
public interest in such interplane–
tary spectaculars.
Bruce Murray, the director of
Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Labora–
tory, manager of the Voyager Proj–
ect, was repor ted as saying that
people see planetary exploration as
an example of the g reatness of the
United States.
It
gives purpose to
our society and makes up for other,
more negative aspects of modern
living.
Flrst " Space Probe"
There was one other time in
ancient history when men tried to
rally around a type of space project
as a unifying symbol to "give pur–
pose" to society. You can read it in
the ll th chapter of Genesis in your
Bible.
"Now the whole earth had one
language and few words. And as
men migrated from the east, they
found a plain in the land of Shinar
and settled there. And they said to
one another, ·come, let us make
bricks, and burn them thorough-
24
ly.' And they had brick for stone,
a nd bitumen fo r mortar. Then
they said ·come, let us build our–
selves a city, and a
tower with its
top in the heavens and let us
make a name for ourselves
Iest
we be scattered abroad upon the
face of the whole earth.'
"The greatest
scientists in this
world cannot tell us
at this moment what
lije is al/ about. The
greatest religionists
cannot tell us what it
is al/ about
. . ."
Noted science writer,
Ray Bradbury
" And the Lord came down to
see the city and the tower, which
the sons of men had built. And the
Lord said , •sehold, they are one
people, and they have all one lan–
guage; and
this is only the begin–
ning of what they wi/1 do;
and
nothing that they propose to do
will now be impossible for them."
(Gen.
11 : 1-6,
RSV).
The Eternal God, as most every-
one is aware of, subsequently con–
fused the languages of men. The
people were henceforth scattered.
The project was brought to a sud–
den halt.
Today, men have had the same
pride in their accomplishments and
intentions. Noted one scientis t at a
Voyager 2
press conference at
JPL's Von Karman auditor ium: " 1
guess you can't say enough about
the men, the women, the teams
that designed , built, pul the space
craft together, not only JPL [but]
1
00-and-some companies involved.
It's a marvelous machine. 1 think it
demonstrates that we have th e
capability to go anywhere, do any–
thing in this solar system that we
want to. We can fly by things, land
on things, send probes into things,
go into orbit about planets. All it
takes is money [laughter] and we
can do those t hings."
True Knowledge Missing
While space spectacul ars may
"give purpose" to society and help
make up for, "negative aspects of
modern living," they add nÓthing
to the knowledge of the transcen–
dent purpose of hu ma n life
itself.
Nor does new knowledge about
the universe around us help us
solve the really serious
human
problems on earth- how to elimi-
The PLAIN TRUTH