To National Desk

Contact: Kathleen Campbell, Campbell Public Relations, LLC; 877-540-6022; kcampbell@thecompletesolution.com

NEWS ADVISORY, May 12, 2006, /Christian Wire Service/ -- In April NASA hosted a four-day workshop, the first in a series of activities planned for 2006 focusing on defining a strategy for lunar exploration. Approximately 200 participants from 13 countries grappled with questions like, "Why are we going to the moon?" and "What will we do when we get there?" 

A team of astronomers and biochemists at the science/faith think-tank Reasons To Believe (RTB) offers some answers to these questions and are publicly encouraging NASA and other space agencies to revisit the lunar surface.

“The Apollo program helped astronomers solve the mystery of the moon’s origin and revealed how amazingly well designed the moon is for the support of advanced life on Earth,” says Dr. Hugh Ross, astronomer and president of Reasons To Believe.

“Return missions to the moon could yield even more evidence of the moon’s design for humanity’s benefit and help solve the mystery of life’s origin on Earth.”

“When the early Earth was bombarded with asteroids and large meteorites,” explains astronomer Dr. Jeffrey Zweerink, research associate at Reasons To Believe, "large amounts of the Earth’s surface material was ejected into outer space, and much of that material wound up on the moon."

“Embedded in this material are remains of Earth’s life that can be found nowhere else,” adds Dr. Fazale Rana, vice-president for science apologetics at RTB.  Dr. Rana is a noted biochemist and a recognized expert in origin of life research.

“Chemical evidence shows that life was abundant on Earth as far back as 3.8 billion years ago, but tectonics, metamorphosis, and erosion here have destroyed all fossils of Earth’s life older than 3.5 billion years,” says Rana.  “The only place where it is possible to find fossils of Earth’s first life, still intact, is on the surface of the moon.” 

In their recent book Origins of Life, Rana and Ross build a model for creation that is anchored in the scientific method.  Using this model they predict that Earth’s first life occurred early and suddenly, as soon as Earth’s physical conditions would permit life to survive.  Discoveries such as early Earth fossils from the lunar surface are vitally important in establishing the credibility of their theory.

“We are thrilled with the prospect that the findings of NASA’s lunar missions will put our creation model to the test,” says Ross.  “The recovery of the fossils of Earth’s first life on the lunar surface will either support or challenge our model for life’s origin.”

Manned flights to Mars, however, are another story.  “Compared to the moon, manned missions to Mars are extremely expensive and potentially life threatening,” states RTB astronomer Dr. Dave Rogstad. 

“Since the moon offers a much less disturbed record of the solar system’s past than Mars does, a lot more science can be done on the moon and with a much greater chance of success.” Rogstad is also a technical consultant at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

“Given that lunar research could settle one of the great controversies of our time, namely a central issue in the creation/evolution debate,” concludes Dr. Ross, “lunar missions are much more likely to yield positive results and engender public support.”