FFRF protests large NASA grant used for religious purposes

[muriel_volestrangler]

In May 2015, NASA's astrobiology program awarded $1.108 million to the Center of Theological Inquiry for "an interdisciplinary inquiry on the societal implications of astrobiology, the study of the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe." Center Director William Storrar stated at the time, "The aim of this inquiry is to foster theology's dialogue with astrobiology on its societal implications, enriched by the contribution of scholars in the humanities and social sciences."
...
With the NASA money, the Center of Theological Inquiry hired 11 theologians — 10 of them Christian — and only one actual scientist. That wouldn't be problematic if they were doing secular work, but they weren't. The work proposed for the grant included:

formulating a "Christian response" to scientific studies on morality,
developing a new model of biblical interpretation,
relating themes from First Corinthians, a book in the Christian bible, to astrobiology,
reconciling a potential astrobiology discovery with Christian theology,
looking at how astrobiology would affect the Christian doctrine of redemption,
examining Christian ethics and Christian doctrines of human obligation,
looking at societal implications of astrobiology with "theological ethics",
and writing a monograph on Christian forgiveness.
...
Then there is the questionable relationship between Voytek and Storrar. While administering the first grant but prior to approving the supplemental grant to the Center, Voytek participated in a panel at a 2015 Center of Theological Inquiry conference in the United Kingdom. Emails reveal that the Center arranged for Voytek's travel to and from this event. In another email sent during the same period, Voytek talks about a 2014 invitation for a trip to Florida to meet the Center's board members and thanks Storrar for his "thoughtful gifts." The records do not reveal the nature of these "thoughtful gifts."

Employees of the executive branch of the United States of America "may not . . . accept a gift from a prohibited source," according to federal law. A prohibited source includes any person who:

"does business or seeks to business with the employee's agency."
"is seeking official action by the employee's agency," or
"has interests that may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance 
of the employee's official duties.

- See more at: https://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/29063-ffrf-protests-large-nasa-grant-used-for-religious-purposes#sthash.rXtxvJ0f.dpuf

[edhopper]

1. It is not NASA's job

to worry about what Christians think of scientific discovery.


The group sounds like so much theological masturbation (yeah I know, is there any other kind of theology!)

[CrispyQ]

2. Time to send FFRF another contribution. -nt

[Lordquinton]

3. Over a million dollars going to hurch PR

Imagine the research that is suffering because of this.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Huh.

Some of that seems noteworthy or possibly useful.

I'd rather not have society self-destruct when X% of the population has the foundation for their worldview ripped out from under them.

I do question a couple of the line items and the amount of investment though.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. I'd question most of the line items

I've no objection to people thinking about it, but the money seems to have been aimed at an almost entirely Christian think tank, who are just thinking in Christian terms, and that's not right for public money. Looking at their website, they seem to have published remarkably little about what they've thought of with this million dollars. There are links to podcasts, which seem to consist of them telling each other "it's great for scientists and theologians to talk about this", but nothing about what they actually decided or suggested.

And I doubt many Christians would 'self-destruct' - they are coping with amazing stubbornness against the ideas of evolution, an Earth billions of years old, and so on. I don't see alien life would mean much to them (I've tried to get discussion goin in this forum once or twice, and have been disappointed at the lack of interest). Since we couldn't have two way communication with aliens, they'd be able to make up whatever story they wanted about them. So, no change there ...

[AtheistCrusader]

6. Well, most of NASA's launch and supply chain assets are embedded in a christian society.

So I can understand the focus, not wanting a bunch of flyover pitchforks and torches showing up at the doorstep when we can prove for sure that the universe isn't a special pleading art project made by a capricious and mendacious supernatural genocidal being with just our species as the pinnacle of development effort.

When people are told they are special for their whole lives, and then they find out they're just people, that's going to have social issues. That can manifest a couple different ways.


Think of it this way; the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste repository. They spent time and money trying to come up with warning signs to stamp on that thing that are so universally 'DANGER IONIZING RADIATION', that if society collapsed and some other species rose up, or aliens showed up, or human archaeologists dig it up 1,000 years into the future, they know not to mess with it. How do you signal that? Skull and crossbones? Then you have some future archaeologist trying to dig up a holy mass grave and can't figure out why the concrete dry casks won't open and why his skin has started itching.

It's that kind of problem. I do think SOME of that is within the purview of NASA because of the subjects that it touches on and how intrinsically delicate the worldview of some people is.