# Creationist Ken Ham calls to end space program because aliens are going to hell anyway

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-ken-ham-calls-to-end-space-program-because-aliens-are-going-to-hell-anyway/693704>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [July 22, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-ken-ham-calls-to-end-space-program-because-aliens-are-going-to-hell-anyway/693704 "2014-07-22T00:35:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-ken-ham-calls-to-end-space-program-because-aliens-are-going-to-hell-anyway/693704/81 "2014-07-24T00:22:11Z")

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> [@WolfpackJeep](#):
>
> Wonder what they would think of “The Hunt” – the _Twilight Zone_ episode where a man is saved from eternal damnation by his dog.

I’m sorry to say that they’d probably smugly assume that the dog was a tool given by God for the use of the man (and that the tool served its purpose). ☹

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**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-ken-ham-calls-to-end-space-program-because-aliens-are-going-to-hell-anyway/693704/82 "2014-07-24T15:55:18Z")

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> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#):
>
> Creationists lie, distort, misquote, and take quotes out of context. I expect better from our side. Unfortunately, in this thread, I’m not getting it.
> 
> Why are we accepting a blogger’s second-hand distortion of what Ham is saying? The Internet wasn’t invented last week. Ham posts [copious amounts of writing online](https://answersingenesis.org/), and if he’s worth mocking, he’s worth mocking from the original source.
> 
> Here is what Ham says:Observe first that Ham is not talking about the space program, nor calling to end the space program, but only talking about SETI.
> 
> Observe also that he is not saying “who cares if we find intelligent life, because said life would be damned”, but that “said life would be damned, and God wouldn’t do that, so we are unlikely to find it”.
> 
> The second version is still plenty mock-worthy. Generation upon generation of human beings, outside of the Middle East and Europe, lived and died “without access to the grace of Christ”, which seems to trouble Ham not at all. But it’s unthinkable that God would do this to aliens?
> 
> But at least, we would be mocking him for what he said, rather than what some blogger said he said and we were too lazy to look up.

You are quite right, Freddy.

Ken Ham is a fool, but he is being mocked for the wrong reason and his comments are being distorted in the article linked in the OP, which is dishonest.

He is still a fool though, because he claims that (according to a book he read) god created everything, but (according to his interpretation of that book) only those on this earth can hope for salvation, and since (according to his belief) god wouldn’t create intelligent life that is irredeemably damned, (according to his conjecture) there is probably no intelligent life outside of our world. \* It’s logic! So stop looking! \*

Essentially the pitiful cry behind his words is: \*The search for knowledge must be stopped because it threatens my beliefs. \*

> [@Princhester](#):
>
> Do you think Ken is happy? I sometimes wonder if I would be happier if I was a complete fruitloop with a simple and certain outlook on life, without room for self doubt. It would all be so much easier.

I am sure there are some believers who are truly happy, but they are the ones who believe without doubt.  
I think they are the ones who do not feel compelled to thump the bible and rail against the pursuit of knowledge, driven by the fear and guilt that grow from their own doubt.  
They are the ones who are content to believe and live by the statutes of their faith without giving grief to those who choose a different path.

As for the Ken Hams of the world, they mock science because deep in their hearts, they fear that they are living a lie.  
Their lives are lived on the edge of a pit of despair.  
Ain’t no joy in that.  
Spent too much of my life standing there myself.

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