OK. I don’t know how to say this. Really. You promise not to laugh? OK. Ready?

Some atheists don’t want us to evangelize imaginary space aliens because the terrorists in the Middle East might not like it.

Hey. You promised not to laugh. If you don’t believe me here’s the article from the Los Angeles Chronicle:

An Atheist-First Amendment public policy group charged last week 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.”…

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?”

Well how about that? You’ve got to admit you didn’t see that coming when you logged onto CMR today. I’m just going to sum it up again because I get a kick out of it. Some atheists don’t want us to evangelize imaginary space aliens because the terrorists in the Middle East might not like it.

I really can’t get enough of it. I’ll have to ask an atheist what inspired this particular lunacy. Was it that even they realized the stupidity of arguing that the cost of carrying a teeny tiny religious memento wasn’t going to bankrupt the country or actually cost much of anything at all so they’re resorting to threats that terrorists might not like it if we bring religion with us into space.

Well, last I heard the terrorists weren’t too keen on us anyway. And you know what, if the terrorists don’t like it, tell them to build a rocket ship and send it up into space to settle this the old fashioned way. By then we’ll have lasers and their rocket will become just a little more space rubble that bounces inconsequentially off our satellites that will be beaming us the locations of overly litigious atheists.

Just kidding about that last paragraph. Kinda.

And I’m sorry for calling them space aliens. They should be referred to as undocumented intergalactic beings.