This is a great and very interesting video about why and how the moon landings COULDN’T have been hoaxed.
In 1969 they DID have the technology to go to the moon, but they DIDN’T have the tech to fake it!
Not only is all the tech and geekery fascinating, but I found the questions about belief and faith at the end of the film thought provoking.
[tentblogger-youtube sGXTF6bs1IU]
Test Everything Said
One of the criticisms often levelled at people of faith, especially Christians, is that to believe you have to “leave your brain at the door”. But the Bible says the exact opposite! In the sermon on the mount, Jesus specifically warns about believing every new fad and fashion that comes along:
15 “Beware of false prophets [TV hosts, celebs, life coaches, gurus, mystics, conspiracy theorists, politicians…] who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
Matthew 7:15-20 (NLT) [square brackets added by me]
Directly after this, Jesus warns people about those who will claim to do things in His name…
In one of his letters to the churches in Greece, Paul warns against the people who claim “The end of the world is nigh – and I know when”!
20 Do not scoff at prophecies, 21 but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. 22 Stay away from every kind of evil.
1 Thessalonians 5:20-22 (NLT)
There’s still plenty of those kinds of people around today! We still have to “test everything that is said” be it in faith, politics and culture in general.
Conspiracy theories of all kinds are all over the web (from the moon landings to putting your pin in backwards in an ATM calls the police…) – so when you’re surfing, test them! For many web urban legends, Snopes is a great place to start.
So how do you ‘test everything that is said’?
[Image by Neil A. Armstrong [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]
Simon L Smith says
The older I get the more surprised I am at how much “doubt” is in the bible.
The heroes of the faith – while certainly heroic – were also certainly flawed, doubtful, afraid, lairs, cheaters, adulterers, whiners, etc.
I grew up in a time and place where “doubt” or “testing” was a bad thing. That in some way it meant you didn’t “really” believe…..
The older I get the more my “life verse” seems to be Mark 9:24:
Immediately the father of the boy cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
James Cooper says
Thanks Simon. I don’t know how you can have ‘faith’ without an element of ‘doubt’.
There’s a line in one of my favourite songs “There is a Reason” by Alison Krauss which echoes your favourite verse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgrFER5ji_4