{"id":39207,"date":"2019-07-20T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-20T13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=39207"},"modified":"2019-07-20T18:28:19","modified_gmt":"2019-07-20T23:28:19","slug":"mormon-life-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2019\/07\/mormon-life-on-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Mormon Life on the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-39208\" src=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D7EF2D84-4693-4A58-ADC9-66BA2515174A.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D7EF2D84-4693-4A58-ADC9-66BA2515174A.jpeg 398w, https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D7EF2D84-4693-4A58-ADC9-66BA2515174A-360x394.jpeg 360w, https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D7EF2D84-4693-4A58-ADC9-66BA2515174A-260x285.jpeg 260w, https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D7EF2D84-4693-4A58-ADC9-66BA2515174A-160x175.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/>I\u2019m old enough to remember the moon landing, 50 years ago today. And I\u2019m old enough to admit that I thought humanity would be much farther along in exploring our nearest neighbor than we are. But I\u2019m encouraged by recent activity \u2014 it feels like we are close to going back and going back permanently.\u00a0If I\u2019m right, then it won\u2019t be too long before members of the church are on the moon, eventually on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n<p>So, I\u2019ve been wondering, in a somewhat lighthearted vein, what will life be like for church members who are on the surface of the moon?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s some thoughts and questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The most immediate need will likely be for the sacrament. Because it is basically food, it shouldn\u2019t be too hard to procure, since bread and water will be part of what is sent with any astronauts. The church members who have already been to space (Don Peterson, Don Lind, Jake Garn and Rick Searfoss, IIRC) may have already faced this. Anyone know? I suppose the bread available may not have been very bread-like \u2014 and when bread is eventually produced on the moon or in low gravity, it may not be what we\u2019re used to!<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t imagine the word of wisdom will be too much of a problem. It is generally accepted that astronauts need to maintain excellent health. Of course, alcohol will still likely be used for celebrations and tea and coffee will likely still be available, so church members will still need to find polite ways of declining. On the other hand, humans are quite inventive, and I won\u2019t be surprised if inebriating substances and illicit drugs become available. But this isn\u2019t any different from here on earth, and if anything keeping the word of wisdom might be easier on the moon.<\/li>\n<li>Water seems like a major issue. If someone decides to join the church on the moon, will baptism be possible? I assume it will, since water would be recycled after the baptism. I wonder if the fluid dynamics of water in low gravity will make baptism more difficult? Do you have to hold someone under the water longer to give the water enough time to cover them? And, since we\u2019re wondering, is it possible to baptize someone in microgravity?<\/li>\n<li>Another potential problem would be garments, at least I assume it might be a problem under a space suit (I assume astronauts where whatever the like inside pressured cabins). At some point, when astronauts regularly have to be in spacesuits for long periods of time, will garments be suitable? Or will we need garments of another material to match the requirements of working in a spacesuit?<\/li>\n<li>And since we\u2019ve discussed garments, what about the Temple? Clearly we won\u2019t have a Temple on the moon or in space anytime soon \u2014 there won\u2019t be a need for it until humans are living there permanently AND there are enough church members to justify it. But what about when there are a few living there more or less permanently? The cost of a \u201ctemple trip\u201d will be, well, astronomical.<\/li>\n<li>Beyond the problems above, I suspect that there might be some benefits. Many astronauts report what is called the \u201coverview effect\u201d\u2014the experience of looking at the Earth from space and the feeling of unity and awe that it inspires. Astronauts claim that this is a spiritual experience unlike anything else they have experienced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What do you think? What might life for church members on the moon be like? Or will past church leaders be right that we\u2019ll never go there (which we might interpret as never settling there permanently)?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m old enough to remember the moon landing, 50 years ago today. And I\u2019m old enough to admit that I thought humanity would be much farther along in exploring our nearest neighbor than we are. But I\u2019m encouraged by recent activity \u2014 it feels like we are close to going back and going back permanently.\u00a0If I\u2019m right, then it won\u2019t be too long before members of the church are on the moon, eventually on a permanent basis. So, I\u2019ve been wondering, in a somewhat lighthearted vein, what will life be like for church members who are on the surface of the moon?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":39208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mormon-life"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D7EF2D84-4693-4A58-ADC9-66BA2515174A.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39207"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39213,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39207\/revisions\/39213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}