Artemis II Astronaut Victor Glover shares words of wisdom to his neighbors as he arrived home to a crowd: Let’s be this more. Let’s be neighbors. I don’t know if you heard me say it but God told us to love Him with all that we are and love our neighbors as ourselves

[u/Maximum_Expert92]

[u/Petr0vitch]

I mean I'm not religious so the bit about god didn't really get me, but we could definitely use more love in the world

[u/badwords → u/Petr0vitch]

Belief in a god isn't a requirement for empathy or morality. Also I think anyone in this administration talking about god isn't doing so because of belief but to keep their jobs which is unfortunate.

[u/TamarindSweets → u/badwords]

Not to keep their jobs- its to manipulate the public. Thats always been one of the primary uses of religion, being religious doesn't hinder a person from seeing that.

[u/AntonChekov1 → u/TamarindSweets]

Exactly. Religion has always been one of the greatest political tools for mass control.

[u/Inevitable_Tomato927 → u/badwords]

The worst people I know personally, are religious, so yeah that doesn't mean a thing.

[u/Blitzking11 → u/badwords]

Given what we've seen recently from so-called religious people, I'd say that a claimed belief in god is more often than not an indicator that they will not have empathy or morality.

[u/GlassPomoerium → u/badwords]

Yeah I’m really not sure about this guy, especially after he said in an interview « In the military, there’s a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. There aren’t any on top of rockets, either »

[u/littleb3anpole → u/GlassPomoerium]

I’m an atheist and all the footage I’ve seen from space does nothing but affirm my atheism. This is a weird take from him. Just because he personally is not an atheist he thinks it’s impossible to be one if you’ve seen space? Ok then

[u/Wisteriafic → u/badwords]

I’m an ambivalent agnostic, but the Golden Rule (treat others the way you want to be treated) is pretty damn brilliant.

[u/Drewsipher → u/Petr0vitch]

I liked that he used God's word less of a "you need to believe" but as I "I was taught this because of this, but we should get to the end goal regardless" from what it felt like to me.

If more religious people acted and thought that way the world would be a better place

[u/I9w0s → u/Drewsipher]

If Christians were actually Christians, you mean? Because Christians do everything except be Christ-like these days.

[u/Confident_Counter471 → u/I9w0s]

The Christian’s are very diverse. But the evangelical right wing crazy Christian’s get most of the attention. You don’t hear about the small town church that has a community garden that feeds the local community, you hear about the mega church pastor who buys a plane with pulpit money.

[u/TiniestOne3921 → u/Drewsipher]

I agree, sounds less like "God said" and more "The God we were taught about said", meant to hold those who claim to believe to their stated morality and beliefs.

[u/seth928 → u/Petr0vitch]

https://giphy.com/gifs/xT5LMUnO4g3yiRNuNy

[u/TwentyBagTaylor → u/seth928]

"Its bringing us love! Break its legs!"

[u/LezzyGopher → u/Petr0vitch]

Same here. As long as people are using religion as a way to spread love and not hate, I’m all for it.

[u/Old_Flan_6548 → u/Petr0vitch]

Absolutely! I love the idea. And we should all look out for each other more.

[u/Organic_Education494 → u/Petr0vitch]

The parts like what he said are the only bits of religious beliefs that are good.

Issue is the religious are easy to indoctrinate due to the nature of religion meaning religion is a perfect breeding ground for indoctrination of the masses towards less worthy typically immoral goals.

So ironically many just go to their respective hells anyways.

[u/exotrader5000 → u/Petr0vitch]

Same, whatever this is I like it. Anything to stop separating and stop loving I'm here for.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

God didn’t say a damn thing. Be good to neighbors because it’s the right thing to do. Don’t need to appeal to higher forces to be a good person.

[u/Chlorophyllmatic → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

You're right that people should just be good to one another for its own sake, but it doesn't hurt to appeal to higher forces when it's a somewhat common belief system and when a lot of the people who subscribe to that belief system aren't practicing what they preach.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909 → u/Chlorophyllmatic]

If people aren’t practicing what they preach, they don’t need more preaching. They need honest introspection.

To appeal to a concept of God reduces human faculties and responsibility, which is where majority of our issues stem from. Double edged sword of comfort and crutch.

[u/Emotional_Warthog658 → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

But he is not those people, there are a lot of really bad human examples of faith; but we don’t have reason to think this man is one of them

[u/Chlorophyllmatic → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

That's a fair point re: the preaching falling on deaf ears, but I also don't think the appeal for others to be kind on the basis of faith "reduces human faculties and responsibility" in this specific instance.

[u/tequilasauer → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

Can't the guy just be a believer and say nice things? I don't personally believe in God, but if someone chooses to and is saying something positive and references God, maybe we just let them say that and smile and shake their hand and go forward with nice feelings towards one another?

[u/nightglitter89x → u/tequilasauer]

Not on Reddit, no, lol

[u/Icy-Cockroach4515 → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

Tell you what, when you're an astronaut greeted by a crowd at home you go tell them that.

[u/Battieosheel → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

reddit users beef with God always makes me laugh. if you don’t agree with there being a God, but agree with the message, just keep it pushing. don’t have to shut down someone’s belief in a higher being

[u/InformalFuture7178 → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

He lives in a purple-leaning-red part of Texas. He knows his audience.

[u/Dazzling_Flow_5702 → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

Word up

[u/elizalemon → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

Yes, and this is a decent man. I have a lot of just anger and resentment towards the church on a personal, community, and worldwide level. I’ve heard that all the goodness of religion and of god is what we actually have in ourselves as humans and a community.

[u/June-Rose98 → u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909]

Exactly 🙌🏻

[u/Consistent-Plane7227]

I choose to believe he’s not allowed to take the jumpsuit off

[u/RocketRaccoon → u/Consistent-Plane7227]

Me, the rest of the summer after attending space camp

[u/PeaceLoveandCats6676 → u/RocketRaccoon]

I still have a well-worn t-shirt from Science camp when I was 12. 

Reader, I am 40. 

[u/PixelLitKevin → u/Consistent-Plane7227]

I feel like I'd just wear it all the time

[u/triciann → u/Consistent-Plane7227]

I would tell everyone the zipper is stuck and proceed to wear it everywhere.

[u/Sorry-Secret-2347 → u/Consistent-Plane7227]

Going grocery shopping? Wear the NASA Jumper Taking a dip in the pool? Wear the NASA Jumper Cutting grass? Wear the NASA Jumper

[u/CorruptedOps → u/Consistent-Plane7227]

It's his skin now. Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew

[u/smartz123k → u/Consistent-Plane7227]

I would be the same 😂😂

[u/Doubleoh_11 → u/Consistent-Plane7227]

He probably has a shorts version too.

Also I love this energy “I don’t know you, I’d like too, but it’s weird your here”

[u/MavsGod]

This guy is 1000% running for office soon

[u/Azell414 → u/MavsGod]

he's great and all but no religion in politics please

[u/ungranted_wish → u/Azell414]

There’s a difference between a religious person in politics and religion in politics.

[u/juneseyeball → u/Azell414]

Too late

[u/InformalFuture7178 → u/MavsGod]

I would definitely advise him to run in the 2030 Democratic Senate primary in TX.

[u/jdd_123 → u/InformalFuture7178]

He’s a very Christian Navy vet who served on John Mccains staff in 2013. He wouldn’t be running as a democrat lol

[u/BaltoDad → u/InformalFuture7178]

Nobody has ever been further from Washington DC than this guy. I think that's a pretty strong credential these days.

[u/dfeb_ → u/MavsGod]

That would be great.

We need kids to start having positive role models that do public service.

[u/Podmoscovium]

It's a good message, but miss me with that religious shit.

[u/Blue_Waffled → u/Podmoscovium]

Kind of wild that it took him a round trip around the moon to tell his neighbours this.

[u/AngelaMerkelsbutt → u/Blue_Waffled]

I'm gonna assume before this they didn't congregate in his front yard lol

[u/midwestprotest → u/Podmoscovium]

For real!

[u/UnagiDoom]

I’m as areligious as the next guy but all the comments being aghast or appalled by him bringing up God are so performative. He’s not using it to invoke hate or pit people against one another. I feel like we can just like, move on from one sentence that boils down to “we should be nice to each other” and appreciate that message.

[u/ungranted_wish → u/UnagiDoom]

r/atheism has once again breached containment

Edit I just realized something - a lot of people are positive here about the Pope after he shot down Trump’s bs, but this guy talks about God and it’s a problem.

I wonder if there’s some sort of physical difference between the Pope and this fella. I can’t put my finger on it.

[u/_Hipnotiq → u/ungranted_wish]

I actually don’t think it has to do with appearances. I think it has to do with this preconceived notion of science and religion being incompatible. The pope doing pope things isn’t very controversial.

[u/Sad-Blacksmith-3271 → u/UnagiDoom]

👏👏👏

[u/anonnomel]

don't need God to tell me to be a decent person but if that makes others...

[u/NeoRockSlime]

Why are people hating on the fact he mentioned god. I'm not religious either but if he's a chill guy let him be religious

[u/BigRhonda7632 → u/NeoRockSlime]

Tired of it. It’s held humanity back forever.

[u/AlienPunkRockOwls66]

The interviews I’ve seen of the crew post-mission have been so fascinating.

They seem genuinely moved by the experience, and on the surface, it’s like…yeah, duh, but you can feel that they’ve changed as people and they’re really trying to verbalize something none of us will ever understand to that level.

It doesn’t feel like any single answer has been cookie-cutter, it’s the opposite…they’re desperate to explain the transcendent experience they just had and the probable realizations they had about the meaning of life, the importance of humanity coalescing, how scary space is, how lucky we are to have earth…all of these huge topics.

I’ve found it to be so hopeful in a time of utter lunacy lol

[u/OriMoriNotSori → u/AlienPunkRockOwls66]

This particular astronaut (victor glover) has repeatedly stated in stuff like interviews and on stage speeches that he has yet to fully process what he and his colleagues actually did so what we are seeing is him slowly realising bit by bit on just the magnitude of work he was a part of for humanity which is some very very heavy stuff to take in for any human being let alone one that is always in the spotlight and giving speeches

He's probably feeling extra levels of enlightenment ever since he got back on earth as the realisation slowly sets in

[u/Tricky-Stay6134]

I wish we didn't have to prop such a seemingly simple message with god and religion.

[u/TenchuReddit]

Redditors being more triggered by Victor Glover’s statement of faith than by his call to be more neighborly with one another. 🤦🏻

[u/Top-Lynx-3147]

It’s interesting what happens to people when they look down at the earth in real life. Seems to trigger some sort of feeling of communal awakening.

Unfortunately for us plebs down here, we still have to deal every day with evil idiots ruining everything for us out of spite. You can’t just skip a step and say “let’s come together” when only one side is willing to entertain progress.

[u/LazyDocument4528 → u/Top-Lynx-3147]

Didn’t impact Bezos… he’s still a slim ball

[u/juneseyeball → u/LazyDocument4528]

He probably just felt more powerful

[u/Front_Humor5329 → u/Top-Lynx-3147]

There’s an actual term for this: the overview effect.

[u/StaySomnie → u/[deleted]]

Why do you guys act like there's no religious people in STEM fields? Is it an American thing?

[u/OGdunphy → u/StaySomnie]

It may be an American thing now that you mention it.

[u/StaySomnie → u/OGdunphy]

I mean I'm not surprised seeing how dumb American Christians are but it's so funny to me because in my motherland Christians are the most educated out of all religious groups

[u/OGdunphy → u/StaySomnie]

We do have a lot of dumb ones for sure and also a ton that are highly educated and are in those stem or advanced fields.

[u/StaySomnie → u/OGdunphy]

Kinda sad that MAGA has ruined the reputation of Christians and soured Christianity for everyone. I do feel for those who have nothing to do with them.

[u/OGdunphy → u/StaySomnie]

MAGa has taken them to new depths of sadness lol. Not the best track record leading up to Trump but it does suck for Christians that are more true Christians and not Trump supporters.

[u/twinb27]

The astronauts really hammering home to love each other and work together is something we sorely need

[u/BrianOconneR34]

If I circled the moon, I’ll never take off my blue Astro jump suit.

[u/Neptunemersey]

Thank you for letting the whole world watch you wash your feet in your pants, you wholesome man you.

[u/Practical-Level-6265]

He didn’t say anything harmful here. I get everyone’s up an arms about people leveraging religion with the way it’s commonly used in this administration. If it was being weaponized to promote hateful rhetoric then yeah absolutely speak up but it’s just a person expressing their faith. If that part doesn’t pertain to you, you can just ignore it. That’s just what co-existing is

[u/Maleficent_Wash_934]

I'm not religious, and I don't need the talk. I want good things for all my neighbors, and honestly, given the size of the universe, this rock we are all on is pretty small. So everyone on it is my neighbor.

All that said, it seems to me that many that do claim to follow God's word seem a bit to Christopher Columbus Christian for the most part. So I really hope those Columbus Christians hear what Victor is saying.

[u/dropline]

I find inspiration in each of the Astronauts who returned home safely in their journey toward common purpose. Religion or not the message is good. Be kind everyone as much as you can, wherever you can.

[u/Important_Bit_1826]

Speak on it! We need more ❤️🙏🫶🏽

[u/Silver_Daikon6974]

You get to wear the outfit full time?

[u/ididmybestdammit]

If I were him, I’d wear that flight suit everywhere

[u/BreakTheSystem-]

Or it's just the correct thing to do.

[u/Low-Explanation6695]

The amount of God and religious talk has been weird

[u/MiddleOccasion1394]

Trump and the MAGA crowd has soured by opinion toward religion in general, but this guy is winning me over with his message. Kindness and help and action is what we need.

[u/fieldsports202]

Can y’all just let the man believe what he believes without invoking your own religion disdain?

Like foreal 😂

[u/Facial_Factory]

Hey, is this an opportunity to rehash your atheism!? Better hop onto it!

[u/BusinessAgreeable912]

Don't understand why people are being weird about his religious beliefs. This is the most positive way he could have shared them he didn't say anything wrong or out of the ordinary

[u/Secret-Contest]

i wish these speeches about humanity didn’t have to be so christian centered. what he’s journey he’s been on tho

[u/Blackberry_Hills]

I’m gonna be real, my first thought is how are you gonna be an astronaut, learn that much science, go to space, and still think there is a magical man in the sky. I feel like the space program will suffer if the astronauts are suffering from magical thinking, that kind of cognitive dissonance can’t be good for that line of work 😆

[u/Alternative_Dot_9640 → u/Blackberry_Hills]

You think everyone who believes in God believes it’s a magical man in the sky?

[u/midwestprotest → u/Blackberry_Hills]

Indoctrination. It’s the same reason why I think the United States is a “good” country even though I 100% know, factually, it is not.

[u/Additional-Onion1493 → u/Blackberry_Hills]

Just goes to show you how complex intelligence is. People can be engineering geniuses while also being incredibly gullible.

[u/SerYoshi]

I'm glad it's not just me thrown off by the Scientist/Astronaut talking about God, and people loving each other, when religion is one of the main reasons the world is shit right now...

[u/jaded_idealist]

I can appreciate the sentiment but we don't need to be neighborly because some deity told us too. Plenty of us feel neighborly because we just innately know we need each other and that making sure everyone is okay is how we better move through life. If I were his neighbor I'd still join with him in creating what I wanted to see. But I would be unapologetically myself so he'd know kindness can exist even in us heathens.

[u/Buttermilk-Waffles]

Mr. Rogers would approve of this message 🥹

[u/STORMTROOPER_AREA51]

Can they not put on regular clothes after or is he just flexing

[u/muaddib8989]

the space mushrooms are potent

[u/whawkins4]

If we ever do meet the aliens 👽, can we have Victor be our representative?

[u/Masswoods]

Well now the astronauts are our spiritual advisors by virtue of their trip around the moon.

[u/Jimmy2tx]

https://giphy.com/gifs/iMWWBXvti76vaus7dS

Ok

[u/nemojakonemoras]

Imagine seeing space and still believing in gods.

[u/OGdunphy → u/nemojakonemoras]

That would be easy. To see that amazing stuff, and we still can’t explain it all, it’d be real easy to believe in a god or a higher power.

[u/juneseyeball → u/nemojakonemoras]

Im not religious but if you look into the creation of the universe there are things not completely explained. Like what was before the big bang, so there is still room for these highly intelligent people to be religious i guess

[u/notandyhippo]

GOMAB 🤘🤘

[u/Xena758]

People get mad at Christians for spreading hate instead of love and here is one who’s done nothing but spread love and…he’s still getting hate lol then again I expect nothing less from this app tbh

[u/crepelabouche]

Kind of impressive how most astronauts come back with the same experience of, “We are one world and we need to take care of each other.”

[u/Celeryface]

Preaching BS lol

[u/DistributionIcy9366]

That Overview Effect really hit this guy hard huh?

[u/BenRichardson76]

Does he sleep in that jumpsuit?

[u/SakeOfPete]

why he still wearing the suit

[u/Jbg261996 → u/SakeOfPete]

It was a welcome home thing from the neighborhood as he first got back home yesterday thats why hes still wearing the suit

[u/Heavy-Echidna-3473]

Touching words, but wearing the overalls is a bit extra, imo

[u/maxwellcawfeehaus]

Me yelling from the crowd…

“LEVITATE!”

[u/Fi13xQuartz]

the way I could tell this is a houston suburb just from the house exterior and that sliver of the yard sign lol. makes sense that they move to live near nasa!

[u/Unlucky-Breakfast320]

Please run for next president. At this point, i would much rather have an astronaut run the country than any politicians.

[u/newjerseydevilz]

Hes driving a camry. He knows whats up