Moon Landing

[Guest guest]

Please check out the link below - I'm not sure if the contents are completely

reliable, but Swami BVT seems to offer a different view (from what I have heard

before) on Prabhupada's opinion on moon landing...

 

http://www.swami.org/sanga/archives/pages/volume_five/m216.html

 

in your service,

Aravind.

 

 

[Guest guest]

achintya, Jeetendra Verma <jeetuv1> wrote:

> The Atomic model has been reviewed repeatedly for better

undertanding beginning from

> 1) Thompson

> 2) Bohr - who won a Noble prize and then

> 3) Schrodinger.

>

> New Theories replaced old ones. The zeal to understand better drove

the scientists for further study.

>

> Similarly in Mechanics :

> 1) Galileo

> 2) Newton - classical mechanics

> 3) Einstein - mechanics at speeds near the speed of light

> 4) Schrodinger, Planck, etc - Quantum mechanics.

>

 

It is not clear to me what the above has to do with moon landings or

lack thereof.

 

> Respecting the scientific approach a question comes:

> Assuming that man did land on moon in 60s and 70s - why is an

expedition not organized now ?

> Computers have advanced relatively a lot from 60s and 70s.

> An expedition now for better study would itself prove (how ethical

were the acts)of the Governments who claim that they were and that

they are commited to science and that they did not play any hoax.

> The fact is that it is not being done - no one even talks about it -

------------??????

 

There are any number of logical reasons why moon landings are no

longer undertaken:

 

1) The missions are expensive

2) There is no financial gain (of course, there is always the chance

to gain in knowledge, but here too there is nothing new to gain since

already many expeditions have been sent).

3) NASA does not enjoy the generous funding these days which it had

during the Cold War era.

 

The logic that "we don't go there now, therefore it must have been a

hoax in the past" is highly questionable at best. It is a public

embarassment for the devotee community when some devotees adopt

conspiracy theories based on questionable logic or bad science.

 

However, all of this is besides the point. The point of this group is

not to discuss moon landings or conspiracy theories. The point is to

discuss the original issue - which is the guru's infallibility or

omnisicience. The moon landing issue was merely an example.

 

> As a thumb rule it is always advisable to trust people (for their

ethical approach) who have dedicated their life and senses in the

service of the Lord.

>

 

I am not clear on what ethics has to do with it. Srila Prabhupada

voiced a doubt as to how astronauts could land on the moon when the

Vedic view holds that one can only reach Chandra Loka via pious

activites and sacrifice. In response to this, some devotees have

adopted poor scientific reasoning to argue that the moon landing was

indeed a hoax. It was they, and not Prabhupada, who made the

definitive statement on the matter. Mental speculation is still

mental speculation, regardless of the source.

 

Sadaputa dasa, on the other hand, gave an explanation in _Vedic

Astronomy..._ that reconciles both views nicely. In his view, Chandra

Loka and the moon are indeed the same, but the astronauts who reached

the moon saw only the airless, lifeless rock that we see, because

they had not sufficient pious activities to see the civilization

there. He uses the example that an microbe may perceive the world in

two dimensions, and thus when confronted with a skyscraper, would

only be able to appreciate its length and width but not its height.

 

Similarly, ordinary living entities may see the moon as a lifeless

rock, but may not see the "extra dimension" in which the Chandra Loka

civilization can be perceived.

 

Admittedly, this is also speculation, but it happens to be more

consistent with what has been observed to have happened.