Two Different Brands of Astronauts

Recently a Sunday supplement in our Nation’s capital carried excerpts from a sermon entitled, “Why I Know There Is A God.” The sermon had been delivered on Laymen’s Sunday last year in an Arlington, Virginia, church. It was a message in simple terms of belief in God and in Christian principles. It concluded with the thought that man is placed on earth as a free agent. He is given freedom of choice and only he can make the decision as to whether he will or will not live by the guidelines which Christ followed throughout his days on earth.

The parishioner who delivered that sermon on Laymen’s Sunday was American Astronaut John Glenn. The rugged and unshakable faith expressed in the title by the author of the sermon permeated the whole.

Scarcely more than a month later, in the course of a tour of the United States, Soviet Cosmonaut German Titoy reportedly was asked if his journey into space had any effect upon his philosophy of life. According to the press, the cosmonaut said flatly, “I don’t believe in God.”

The statement was carried in an article under the heading, “Titoy Puts Belief in Man Alone.”
~ Christianity Today