On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin(1930-) became the first humans ever to land on the moon. About six-and-a-half hours later, Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. As he took his first step, Armstrong famously said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The Apollo 11 mission occurred eight years after President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) announced a national goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Apollo 17, the final manned moon mission, took place in 1972.

Read more:

https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/moon-landing-1969

Being a complete lunatic, Gus was there before them...

In the Cold War era the prestige of science, “flags and footprints” drove the space race between the US and USSR. But today, private profit, space colonies and military control are shaping up as the major drivers.

Everett Dolman

Professor of Strategy at the US Air Force Air Command and Staff College, and author of Astropolitik: Classical Geopolitics in the Space Age

Namrata Goswami

Independent analyst and author on space policy, currently working on a project for the US Office of the Secretary of Defence on great power competition in space.

Malcolm Davis

Space lead and Senior Analyst in Defence Strategy and Capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Hear more:

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-moon-geo...

A senior custodian of Uluru expects tourism will thrive after the closure of the climb to the rock's summit in October.

• The Uluru climb will be closed from October 2019
• Tourists are rushing to do the climb before the ban starts
• Uluru custodian Sammy Wilson hopes people will come to understand the importance of the site to traditional owners

"I've noticed more and more people are coming on tours to learn from us Anangu [the traditional owners]," Sammy Wilson told 7.30.

"I enjoy people asking about and wanting to learn about our country."

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Wilson said people who criticised the decision to close the climb needed to understand how Anangu see the world.

"We don't live in fenced-off squares. It's time they came here in return and learned about our place and the way we see it — circular country," he said.

The Uluru Board of Management, which has a majority of Anangu members, announced a plan to close the climb in 2017.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-22/uluru-climb-closure-chance-to-learn-rom-traditional-owners/11335086

Read from top.

This isn't new... Back in 1979, Gus found out that walking to the top of Uluru (then still known as Ayers Rock) was upsetting the custodians. I was not even there but the vibes were obvious from various private reports. It's a no-brainer: it's called respect. It's a bit like allowing tourists to climb all over the Michelangelo statues in the big church (St Peters?) in Rome. The swiss guard of the pope would object...

Thrity years ago, this article in the Australian Weekend magazine celebrated 20 years since the moon landing. The moon landing was a major feat of guts, sciences and technology. In about six years, the project went from woah to go, pushing everyone to the limit. It's only since many years after they returned to earth, that some of the mooners started to think about their mortality. They had done the impossible, they had seen the emptiness of space and he flimsy meaning of their life hurling in a small tin — so some of them decided to turn to god... How gauche and useless. It seems that they had achieved the dream and there was nothing left, but illusionary glory... Read from top.

Picture from Gus' massive collection of useless stuff and clippings...

We take it for granted that religions are born, grow and die – but we are also oddly blind to that reality. When someone tries to start a new religion, it is often dismissed as a cult. When we recognise a faith, we treat its teachings and traditions as timeless and sacrosanct. And when a religion dies, it becomes a myth, and its claim to sacred truth expires. Tales of the Egyptian, Greek and Norse pantheons are now considered legends, not holy writ.

Even today’s dominant religions have continually evolved throughout history. Early Christianity, for example, was a truly broad church: ancient documents include yarns about Jesus’ family life and testaments to the nobility of Judas. It took three centuries for the Christian church to consolidate around a canon of scriptures – and then in 1054 it split into the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches. Since then, Christianity has continued both to grow and to splinter into ever more disparate groups, from silent Quakers to snake-handling Pentecostalists.

You might also like:
• How and why did religion evolve?
• Do humans have a religion instinct?
• How long can civilisation survive?

If you believe your faith has arrived at ultimate truth, you might reject the idea that it will change at all. But if history is any guide, no matter how deeply held our beliefs may be today, they are likely in time to be transformed or transferred as they pass to our descendants – or simply to fade away.

If religions have changed so dramatically in the past, how might they change in the future? Is there any substance to the claim that belief in gods and deities will die out altogether? And as our civilisation and its technologies become increasingly complex, could entirely new forms of worship emerge?

To answer these questions, a good starting point is to ask: why do we have religion in the first place?

Reason to believe

One notorious answer comes from Voltaire, the 18th Century French polymath, who wrote: “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”Because Voltaire was a trenchant critic of organised religion, this quip is often quoted cynically. But in fact, he was being perfectly sincere. He was arguing that belief in God is necessary for society to function, even if he didn’t approve of the monopoly the church held over that belief.

Many modern students of religion agree. The broad idea that a shared faith serves the needs of a society is known as the functionalist view of religion. There are many functionalist hypotheses, from the idea that religion is the “opium of the masses”, used by the powerful to control the poor, to the proposal that faith supports the abstract intellectualism required for science and law. One recurring theme is social cohesion: religion brings together a community, who might then form a hunting party, raise a temple or support a political party.

Read more:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190801-tomorrows-gods-what-is-the-futu...

Read from top. Despite Voltaire being a smart guy, his "revolutionary" position on religion has been overtaken by scientific relativity and observations. Religions do not make any sense on this planet.

Read other article by Gus on this subject. Gus is a fierce atheist. 

See:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/27819

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/36580

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/6916

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33211

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/29274

and many more...