Who looks DOWN from a mountaintop to see the horizon?
Posted on 09/02/2025 4:40:08 AM PDT by daniel1212
My name is Joe Owen. I head up the worldwide languages ministry at Answers in Genesis.
That's Charlie Duke. There were nine missions to the moon. I worked on five of them. In 1978, I became a born again Christian.
I came to faith on January 19, 1988. I was selected by NASA in 1996, and I flew four times—once on the space shuttle going to the space station and then three expeditions, each about six months long.
Many times, I am introduced as an astronaut, but if I were to describe myself, I certainly wouldn't call myself an astronaut, because the way I see myself is as a wretched sinner who is saved by grace. Second from being a wretched sinner saved by grace, I consider myself a naval aviator.
Barry and I actually shared a little bit of time in space—his first flight. He launched on the space shuttle STS 129 while I was on an expedition on the space station. So, he brought me fresh food, and there you go.
We had a great time.
He allowed us into his home because he was living there, of course, and we were just visiting. But it was a great experience. Jeff, at one point you had the most days in space. It's over 500 days, correct?
Yeah, I think they say 534 days.
And now, Butch, you're getting up there. You're at 446 total days, but also, you just came back from, as many people know, a mission that went longer than planned. Was it 286 days with the Starliner launch? So, I have three very interesting fellas in front of me with perspectives that a lot of us don't have. What is the wow moment?
The biggest wow for me is the grandeur of this place that we call home, which God created and uniquely provisioned for our habitation—we call it Earth. Orbiting the Earth 16 times a day for a year and a half, studying the surface of the Earth, and taking in all of the details you can see from that vantage point was the most spectacular part of the experience for me.
As soon as I got to space, the engines on the space shuttle cut off. We separated from the external tank. I felt weightlessness for the first time. There were jets in the nose of the space shuttle that were blasting orange bursts right up in front of me. I could hear it—little explosions at my feet. Boom. Boom. One of my crewmates levitated up from the mid deck. He didn’t climb the ladder, he just levitated up. I'd seen it on video, but never with my own eyes. It was the strangest sight—just floating up from below. When the shuttle separated from the external tank, water droplets on the tank turned to ice. Thousands of ice crystals floated outside the window, illuminated by the sun. It looked like glistening diamonds—thousands of them outside the window. Orange blast. Boom. Boom. Boom. I felt weightless. Still strapped in, my crewmates levitating everywhere. And I thought, “Wow, Lord. How did I get here? How did I get to this point where I am the guy in this seat and all this is taking place?” That was a pretty wild moment.
I think one of the most moving times of my flight was when we went into orbit around the moon and came around from the backside; we had Earthrise for the first time. Honestly, my first thought was, “We are a long way from home. I hope this thing holds together.” But then the beauty of it hit: that vision of Earth. It’s a beautiful planet. You don’t see any evidence of civilization, just that jewel suspended in the blackness of space. Vividly impressed in my mind still today.
General, when you say that, I think—wow, that vantage point of our planet from the backside of the moon, only 24 individuals have experienced that. You were one of them. That’s very special—a gift from the Lord not many people have had.
I can’t say at that point I recalled the Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast. Bill Anders took that picture of Earth coming up and they started reading from Genesis: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." I got back and looked in the scriptures and it says, "When God made the earth, he suspended it upon nothing." That’s exactly what it looks like.
The three of you, in your wow moments, have not spoken about what everyone else mentions. When we ask an astronaut, we ask about the stars in the distance. All three of you have focused on Earth. I think that points again to our planet being where those made in the image of God are—the stewards and recipients of the gospel. Jesus came to this earth.
One of my favorite themes from scripture: when we think about the works of God, we think of creation, redemption, His provision and sustaining creation, but sometimes forget His work as governor and providence.
I'll echo that. He’s absolutely right. This amazing created globe that Isaiah tells us the Lord created to be inhabited—you can see that from space. It's a demonstration of God's providential care for each of us.
Everywhere I go, General, they ask: “The moon landings never happened, right?” Some people say it’s hard to believe they were fake. I say it’s hard to believe they were real. The moon landing—I just can't get behind it. I can’t believe it happened. There’s a bunch of weird theories.
It's regrettable that people believe 400,000 people supported the moon program and could all be part of a conspiracy. People believe that for strange reasons. But we know, of course, you went. There’s no way we would all stand here, professing our faith in Jesus Christ, and boldface lie to everyone—plus maintain that secret for 55 years.
The evidence is overwhelming. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken pictures of every Apollo landing site—there it is! Some say that's part of the conspiracy, too.
Charlie, describe what it’s like to hop around on the moon in a heavy suit at one-sixth gravity.
Down here, with all my gear on, I weighed 363 pounds. Up on the moon, 60 pounds. So you had this bounciness. Boy, was that fun. But you had to bend over to keep your center of gravity over your feet, or you’d tilt backward or fall forward. It was easy once we got used to it and how to move around the surface. John and I had a rover, so we didn’t walk far but drove 17 miles. I fell down a couple times while working on an experiment.
So now I'm flat on my face on the moon, and John's off somewhere busy. So I started a series of push-ups—rocked up on my feet and stood up. "How'd you like that?" "Ah, beautiful maneuver there, Charlie."
I felt right at home on the moon. The beauty—the rolling hills, craters, mountains, the clear horizon—no atmosphere, so you see the sharp line between black space and the gray moon. We had so much fun, I didn’t want to come back. “Come on, Houston, give us two more hours.” "Get in the spacecraft, guys." Our last hour on the moon was moving for me. I brought a picture of my family, dropped it on the moon. I thank God, looking back, for His providence, giving me that opportunity.
The general term is "spacewalk," but truly, of the three of us, only one walked on the moon. Jeff and I "spacehanded" on the space station, climbing hand over hand outside the station for nearly seven hours. It was the hardest thing we did—physically and mentally—but also the most rewarding.
This flat earth movement is gaining popularity, which surprises me. Of course, the earth is spherical. When I first heard about the flat earth movement in 2016, I thought it was satire. When I got back, I realized it was a new movement. Whenever I speak, this question comes up. Usually, someone knows a flat-earther. There's no logic to the argument. I've given up trying to argue logically. It's utter foolishness. It’s becoming more concerning: If you can believe that, you could be led astray about the truth of Scripture. It’s a dangerous heretical line of thinking.
You can look at the pictures we took of the earth—it’s round. No question. How can you defend a flat earth?
"How can you believe in the Bible and science? Aren’t those contradictory?" The true understanding of science is only understood through the biblical lens. During the age of science—Kepler, Newton, Maxwell—all were believers, driven to scientific endeavor by faith in a God of order. There's a mathematical, chemical, physical order in creation that makes science possible. We bear the image of God, the Creator; we are creative. In Genesis 1, God says to Adam, “Subdue the earth, have dominion.” Scientific endeavor, rightly understood, is subduing God’s provision.
Meanwhile, during the same era, you can see the evolution of evolutionary thought: what became known as Darwinian theory. Some, like Huxley, hated the church and even acknowledged there was little genuine science in Darwin’s work.
When people ask how the Bible and science fit, I point to Matthew 24—‘Be not deceived.’ Saying Bible and science are at odds is a deception. The Bible is absolutely true: inerrant, infallible, sufficient for all we need. It isn’t a science book, but where it speaks to science, it’s accurate, 100%. To say otherwise is heretical. Except for miracles, the Bible aligns 100% with science.
Science increasingly proves that life is not an accident: the genome, the helixes, are mathematically impossible by chance. I was a big evolutionist; that’s what NASA taught me. They called the moon rock I brought back four billion years old. They say it’s the oldest rock on earth that John and I picked up. Well, it might be the oldest, but it’s not four billion years old—that’s not what the Bible says. I believe scripture.
Sorry to bring such a philosophical, theological question at the end, but do astronauts get to keep their space suits?
No. Some keep gloves, like maybe Jeff has his Russian space suit gloves, I did not keep mine. Some keep something like that, but that’s about it. Russians have a tradition of giving gloves after a spacewalk.
Did you get to keep any of your suit?
Me? No. I wasn’t allowed to keep any of the suit. I kept some tools from the moon, and all the checklists. No moon rocks—they wouldn’t let us. You’d go to jail for a rock!
One of my favorite themes from scripture: when we think about the works of God, we think of creation, redemption, His provision and sustaining creation, but sometimes forget His work as governor and providence.
I'll echo that. He’s absolutely right. This amazing created globe that Isaiah tells us the Lord created to be inhabited—you can see that from space. It's a demonstration of God's providential care for each of us.
Everywhere I go, General, they ask: “The moon landings never happened, right?” Some people say it’s hard to believe they were fake. I say it’s hard to believe they were real. The moon landing—I just can't get behind it. I can’t believe it happened. There’s a bunch of weird theories.
It's regrettable that people believe 400,000 people supported the moon program and could all be part of a conspiracy. People believe that for strange reasons. But we know, of course, you went. There’s no way we would all stand here, professing our faith in Jesus Christ, and boldface lie to everyone—plus maintain that secret for 55 years.
The evidence is overwhelming. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken pictures of every Apollo landing site—there it is! Some say that's part of the conspiracy, too.
It wouldnt be that hard to convince people we went to the moon when we didnt if you operated on a need to know basis. You could probably convince 400,000 that we did, if the 15 people in the know kept quiet.
Im not saying we didnt go to the moon, but just explaining how 400,000 could believe something untrue was true.
Yet just one strand of DNA has 3 billion base pairs that have to work just right for us to live and function. That's more coding than this software engineer has made since I started programming my Commodore 64 as a hobby, all the coding I did to get my CS degree, all of the coding I've done in my career, and all of the program code I've seen from others. It's ridiculous to think that DNA came about just from random chance. And that's just DNA. Incorporate all of the things we know about creation ... I'm simply not religious enough to believe in random chance.
People think the world is flat for the same reason people believe the Nazis didn’t kill 6,000,000 Jews.
Our governments and media lie constantly. China virus. Biden’s fine. Anthropomorphic global warming. Whatever. Constant lies.
So even true things are doubted.
America is unique. Best feature imo is patent law.
I agree, but don’t get the relevance.
Who looks DOWN from a mountaintop to see the horizon?
Thank you, that image never fails to impress me.
You mean you think the Russians in 1969 would have allowed NASA to pull off the biggest scam in history and not say a word, and still to this day not say a word?
Fantastic Post !
But that quote makes me ponder how thousands of people could help steal the election six years ago and still none of them have spilled the beans.
I guess no one else wants to get 'Sethed' or 'Breitbarted'.
I listend to all the Apollo Mission on Short Wave Radio with the channel skips. I am quite sure it happned. At a minimum we landed equipment, if not the people.
And yes the Russians would not allow the Big Lie as well.
Book and Youtube are like politics, everyone who spreads a lie profits from those who give the clicks or buy the lie.
Everyone. But your diagram is ridiculously out-of-scale. The earth’s radius is about 4000 miles. Even a person standing on Mt Everest is not at 4000 miles altitude above mean sea level.
My step dad worked on the lunar rover at Boeing...one of the 400,000...and he told me. No secret could be kept like that.
Your diagram is ridiculously not to scale ... it suggests an Earth diameter of 1516 meters. QUIT LYING.
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