"SPACE MISSIONARY" MEMENTO IS INAPPROPRIATE CARGO ON LATEST SPACE SHUTTLE FLIGHT, SAY ATHEISTS

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http://www.atheists.org
http://www.americanatheist.org

For more information, please contact:
Ed Buckner, President 908-499-9200 (cell) or 770-803-5353 (office/fax)
Dave Silverman, Communications Director 732-648-9333

"SPACE MISSIONARY" MEMENTO IS INAPPROPRIATE CARGO ON LATEST SPACE
SHUTTLE FLIGHT, SAY ATHEISTS

An Atheist-First Amendment public policy group charged today that NASA
is violating the separation of church and state by permitting a "space
missionary" memento on the latest Discovery Space Shuttle Mission.

On board the shuttle is a piece of an airplane that crashed in Ecuador
in 1956 that carried members of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship.  One
of the shuttle astronaut  contacted the Idaho-based group proposing that
the item be taken into space as part of a government-funded  exploration
project.  The event has re-ignited enthusiasm by religious groups for
"space missionary" proselytizing.

"This is an  inappropriate and unconstitutional use of  resources,"
charged Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists.  NASA is a
scientific and exploratory agency that is funded by taxpayers.  Its
mission should not include religious grandstanding, or efforts to use
outer space as a pulpit for religion."

Coincidentally, Dr. Buckner's late father, Rev. James C. Buckner of St.
Christopher's Episcopal Church in League City, Texas, collaborated with
Apollo 8 astronaut Cdr. Frank Borman to insert religion on the first
lunar orbital mission in 1968.  That mission included a Christmas Eve
religious service as the spacecraft circled the Moon -- and prompted an
unsuccessful lawsuit by American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair.
Ed Buckner stressed that "I loved my father, though I disagreed with him
then and of course now.  I did not reject my father when I rejected
theism nor became an Atheist out of rebellion.  I became an Atheist
because theism ceased to make any sense to me."

Dave Silverman, Vice President and Communications Director for American
Atheists said that in addition to being inappropriate and illegal, using
NASA to promote sectarian religion "could fuel international tensions
and resurrect images of American-sponsored proselytizing in the Middle
East and elsewhere."

"This is supposed to be a 'new era' for international respect and
cooperation," said Mr. Silverman. How do you think the non-Christian
peoples of the world react when they see Americans pushing Christianity
even in outer space?"

AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for
Atheists; works for the total separation of church and state; and
addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.

American Atheists, Inc.
PO BOX 158
Cranford, NJ 07016
Tel.: (908) 276-7300
Fax: (908) 276-7402