4 ms·

This is astoundingly vacuous. The moon is a whole planetoid. To speak of 'the moon' as one place is meaningless. Imagine a people that asked "don't bury your

This is astoundingly vacuous. The moon is a whole planetoid. To speak of 'the moon' as one place is meaningless. Imagine a people that asked "don't bury your dead in the earth's soil! Soil is sacred to us! Everybody please burn them instead!" We'd all laugh. Whose business is it to dictate the activities on an entire world? It's like treaties that forbid certain things 'in space'. Wha? You mean, the entire Universe? Meaningless. For instance: We could dump waste on the moon for centuries, and never see it from the earth. It is as big across as Australia. Dump something in the outback of Australia, and challenge anyone to find it. Silly. A polite answer is required, but by no means should anyone consider such a request as a serious matter.

EA-3167 3y ago
Religion and "astoundingly vacuous" do tend to coexist all too often. I don't think that changes when it's an indigenous religion. The response has to be that you can respect their beliefs, and they can respect yours... which entail that "sacred" is a human invention subject to culture. Now, peacefully disagreeing, we can get on with our lives and our Moon missions.
krapp 3y ago
>The moon is a whole planetoid. To speak of 'the moon' as one place is meaningless. People speak of 'the moon' as one place all the time. No one, except maybe astronomers in very specific contexts, ever speak of the moon in any other terms. You're stretching a bit too hard trying to ridicule this.
- JoeAltmaier 3y ago
  We also speak of 'Australia' as one place. But if we let go the pedantry, we understand the idea. Which is, the label is a concept. It's too broad to be taken seriously as a detail in somebody's preferences.
  - krapp 3y ago
    It's no more silly than Christians claiming God gave them dominion over an entire continent that other people happened to be living on at the time, or any of the nonsense around the Holy Land. Abrahamists don't accept such limitations on the claims their religions make, because they claim their religion is correct for the entire universe. Why should we insist that other religions be more accommodating? Of course the Navajo think the moon is sacred. Tons of people consider the moon sacred. Instead of focusing on ridiculing their beliefs we should be considering why they're upset and whether dumping shit on the moon is a good idea at all.
    - JoeAltmaier 3y ago
      Again, it doesn't matter one iota what you put up there. It's way too big to matter. If I told you somebody had been dumping for 100 years already, you would not be able to refute it by observation. The Universe is large. Stop thinking of it as we would our back yard.
sokoloff 3y ago
> Imagine a people that asked "don't bury your dead in the earth's soil! Soil is sacred to us! Everybody please burn them instead!" Then imagine another people that asked "don't burn your dead! The atmosphere is sacred to us; we breathe it! Everybody please bury them instead!"

EA-3167 3y ago

Religion and "astoundingly vacuous" do tend to coexist all too often. I don't think that changes when it's an indigenous religion. The response has to be that you can respect their beliefs, and they can respect yours... which entail that "sacred" is a human invention subject to culture. Now, peacefully disagreeing, we can get on with our lives and our Moon missions.

krapp 3y ago

>The moon is a whole planetoid. To speak of 'the moon' as one place is meaningless. People speak of 'the moon' as one place all the time. No one, except maybe astronomers in very specific contexts, ever speak of the moon in any other terms. You're stretching a bit too hard trying to ridicule this.

JoeAltmaier 3y ago
We also speak of 'Australia' as one place. But if we let go the pedantry, we understand the idea. Which is, the label is a concept. It's too broad to be taken seriously as a detail in somebody's preferences.
- krapp 3y ago
  It's no more silly than Christians claiming God gave them dominion over an entire continent that other people happened to be living on at the time, or any of the nonsense around the Holy Land. Abrahamists don't accept such limitations on the claims their religions make, because they claim their religion is correct for the entire universe. Why should we insist that other religions be more accommodating? Of course the Navajo think the moon is sacred. Tons of people consider the moon sacred. Instead of focusing on ridiculing their beliefs we should be considering why they're upset and whether dumping shit on the moon is a good idea at all.
  - JoeAltmaier 3y ago
    Again, it doesn't matter one iota what you put up there. It's way too big to matter. If I told you somebody had been dumping for 100 years already, you would not be able to refute it by observation. The Universe is large. Stop thinking of it as we would our back yard.

sokoloff 3y ago

> Imagine a people that asked "don't bury your dead in the earth's soil! Soil is sacred to us! Everybody please burn them instead!" Then imagine another people that asked "don't burn your dead! The atmosphere is sacred to us; we breathe it! Everybody please bury them instead!"