Artemis II and the Resurrection: More in Common Than You Think

Other than the cool coincidence that only 12 people have ever set foot on the moon and that Jesus had 12 disciples, there are a surprising number of similarities between the moon landings and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

While watching the recent Artemis II mission with joy and wonder, I couldn’t help but come across the comments sections on every social media post relating to the event. Many of the comments were from people like me, who thoroughly enjoyed watching these four brave souls (and their little “Rise” mascot) fly around the moon and back. Yet there were just as many, if not more, people claiming that the whole thing was fake.

Among those of us who believe in moon landings, the level of scepticism shown by the non-believers is quite astonishing. It seems that there is no evidence that one could show them — short of sticking them on a rocket and sending them up — that would convince them that the moon landings (and space travel in general) actually happened.

Another video I watched recently brought home the link between moon landings and the Resurrection (and belief in God generally). In a debate between Christian astrophysicist Hugh Ross and atheist scientist Peter Atkins, Atkins finally admitted that there was no amount of evidence that anyone could show him that would convince him that God is real.

Both sending a human to the moon and seeing one rise from the dead are extraordinary events. Prior to 1969, many would have doubted that landing on the moon was even possible. One obvious difference is that the moon landings are based on science, which works within the parameters of natural laws, while the Resurrection is a supernatural event that operates beyond nature. For the moon landing-denier, however, sending a human to the moon is akin to the miraculous, as per Arthur Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

When making the case for either event, we find that the hyper-sceptical audience demands “extraordinary evidence” before they are willing to accept the “extraordinary event”. This idea was popularised by Carl Sagan — an astronomer who obviously believed in space travel, but was famously sceptical of Christianity.

The problem with the “extraordinary evidence” bar is that it is impossible to achieve. What kind of evidence counts as “extraordinary”? An actual photo of the moon’s surface? Photoshop, according to the moon landing denier. The conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus? Hallucination, according to the atheist. Peter Atkins said that if God wrote his name in the stars, he would put it down to him going mad rather than believe in God.

Interestingly, there are many people like Sagan and Atkins who fall into the believing category for one event and the unbelieving category for the other. There are Christians who disbelieve the moon landings. This is where comparing the two sets of evidence that we have for these two events becomes an interesting exercise. If you believe in one event, what is your excuse for disbelieving the other?

The eyewitnesses

One key similarity is our dependence on relatively few eyewitness accounts. As stated earlier, only 12 people have set foot on the moon, and Jesus had only 12 close male disciples. Yet in both cases, we have many more people with similar direct experiences than the 12 in the inner circle.

The crew of Artemis II are among the larger group of astronauts who have been close enough to the moon to count as eyewitnesses that moon landings are possible. Over 700 people have been in space — including those who have served on the International Space Station. All of these can testify that getting into space is certainly possible, and not a single one of them would say that the moon landings were faked.

In the same way, there were many more than 12 male disciples who saw Jesus after He rose from the dead. His female disciples were the first to see the empty tomb, and saw Him in the flesh soon thereafter. His brothers — who did not believe in Him before He died — saw Him too. In 1 Corinthians 15:6, Paul says that 500 people saw Jesus after the Resurrection, besides His closest disciples. Like the crew of Artemis II, none of these people would say that Jesus did not rise from the dead.

The moon landings involved multiple events, not just Neil Armstrong and his crew doing it once. The later Apollo missions involved driving rovers on the moon, collecting samples and doing experiments. Multiple independent events are more convincing than one fleeting event. Someone claiming to have once seen a UFO that flashed by in an instant is far less convincing than the moon landings.

Furthermore, some of the missions failed. Astronauts died or had to abort the mission. Failure has a ring of truth to it — if one is faking a story, it always works out perfectly and makes the story teller look good. If NASA has been telling us tall tales the whole time, there would be no embarrassing examples of failure.

The Resurrection was followed by multiple independent occasions where Jesus came to be with His disciples. In one case, He walked next to them and taught them, in another, He invited them to touch His scars from the cross, in yet another, He cooked them fish for breakfast. These were not momentary uncertain flashes, they were real encounters.

Finally, the accounts of the disciples first discovering the empty tomb and meeting Jesus are embarrassing. None of them had taken Jesus seriously when He told them that He would rise from the dead. The male disciples acted like cowards, while the women bravely went to the tomb. Familiar human weakness and failure is stamped all over this story. If the original 12 disciples wanted people to follow them in their newly manufactured cult, this would not have been the story they told. They would be portrayed as brave, believing men who always knew that Jesus would come through for them.

The first audiences

In our search for reliable testimony, we can cast the net wider still. Thousands of people work for NASA directly, while thousands more supply them on a contract basis. None of these people have ever personally been to space, but if it was all fake, what are they being paid to do? To suggest that NASA is forking out billions just to fake space travel is absurd. The people working for them know that and therefore have good reason to believe in the moon landings.

Similarly, there were thousands of people in Jerusalem during the crucifixion. Many of these were present during Pentecost when Peter gave his first speech about seeing the risen Jesus. They knew for certain that Jesus had been crucified. The man standing before them, alongside hundreds of others eyewitnesses, was willing to risk his life to tell them that Jesus was alive. Why would he fake the Resurrection at such a cost? To do so would be absurd. After this message and his next one, 8,000 people had good reason to believe in the Resurrection.

Millions of believers

More than a few thousand people who are directly involved with NASA believe in the moon landings. I am one of the millions who have never visited NASA’s operations, never seen a rocket launch with my own eyes, or had the opportunity to handle a moon rock, and yet I believe. Why? I have judged that the “ordinary” evidence from reliable witnesses is sufficient to conclude that the “extraordinary” moon landings really happened.

I count the live footage sent from Artemis II and other space missions as evidence. Watching these events may be second-hand information, but it is still a convincing experience for me. When the astronauts floated upside down, described their awe and wonder of seeing the moon, and answered many detailed questions about their mission, it was clear to me that they were doing something real. These are not Hollywood actors, as some claim.

As with the moon landing believers, there are millions of Christians around the world today, and millions more who have gone before us. We haven’t physically touched the resurrected Jesus, or heard Him teach us from the Bible, or eaten breakfast with Him. Yet we still believe. Why? We have judged that the “ordinary” evidence from the earliest Christians is sufficient to conclude that the “extraordinary” Resurrection really happened.

Most Christians have an even better experience of Jesus than watching the Artemis crew members on YouTube. We have met the Lord ourselves in thousands of different ways. Some have seen Him in visions, others have felt Him speak to them in the Bible, while still others have felt a tangible presence or heard a voice while praying. These experiences differ widely, but every person who has ever had such an experience will tell you that it was more real to them than anything they have ever watched on TV.

Beyond testimonies

Perhaps your scepticism is such that you don’t trust reliable witnesses. You need more evidence than their personal experiences with the moon, space, or NASA. Regarding the case for Christianity, you are sceptical of the eyewitness accounts in the gospels.

Yet we have more evidence than their word — the astronauts have taken hundreds of photos and video footage, from Apollo 11 to Artemis II. Some missions brought moon rocks back with them. These tangible artifacts are enough to convince most people, and one really has to stretch the bounds of incredulity to claim that they are all Photoshop or CGI.

Since the Resurrection happened before the advent of cameras, no reasonable person would demand video footage of Jesus leaving the tomb. But we do have other tangible evidence.

Luke was a particularly scrupulous historian who gave highly detailed accounts in his Gospel and the Book of Acts. These are so detailed that they are easily ‘falsifiable’ — if he was making up a legend of Jesus and His disciples hundreds of years after the fact, many of these details would be wrong.

Archaeologist Sir William Ramsay recognised this and set out to prove that Luke and Acts were wrong. After many years of archaeological research — finding tangible artefacts such as engravings on stone — he conceded that “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy. …[He] should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.”

Beyond Luke’s works, we have thousands of very early copies of the manuscripts that form our New Testament. There are artworks, rock engravings, and letters from early church leaders that all confirm the basic message of the New Testament hundreds of times over. The Bible has been critiqued from nearly every angle imaginable, including by people who simply refuse to believe that it is true. Like those claiming Photoshop or CGI for the moon landings, they stretch the bounds of incredulity to breaking point.

The enemy’s testimony

Soon after the first moon landing by Apollo 11, the USA received a message from their arch-enemy and main space rival at the time: the Soviet Union. While they didn’t like losing the race to the moon, they knew that they had lost. The USSR had no reason to admit that it happened and every reason to deny yet. Their congratulating the USA for getting to the moon is strong evidence that it happened.

The Jewish leaders — known as the Sanhedrin — were the arch-enemies of Jesus and the early church. They had conspired against Him and ensured that Pilate put Him to death.

Jesus claimed to be God, which was the height of blasphemy to them. He also threatened their precarious political position with Rome — the Jews were not supposed to recognise anyone but Caesar as their king. What if the people got out of hand and tried to crown Him?

Once they finally had Jesus crucified, the Sanhedrin took a collective sigh of relief. The reports of the empty tomb three days later rocked their boat, but bribing the Roman guards to spin the “stolen body” story seemed to be a good fix. Peter’s first message at Pentecost — accompanied by thousands of Jews believing him — threatened to sink them altogether.

One member of the Sanhedrin was especially wild with anger. Saul of Tarsus felt the threat of Christianity as an attack on his core identity. He was a Pharisee — part of the group of Jewish leaders that Jesus spoke against more than any others. This movement among Christ-believing Jews would be a disaster for the Pharisees. The only option for Saul seemed to be to stamp out this movement with violence: throw them in prison and threaten them with death.

The greatest enemy of the church suddenly did a 180-degree turn. One day, he met the risen Jesus Christ in person. He could do nothing but admit defeat. The disciples he hated so much were right, after all. This about-face was not at all beneficial for Saul in terms of his societal status or career expectations. He went from a promising young leader of the Sanhedrin to an outcast among the Jews who was stoned, beaten, and thrown in prison numerous times for his claim that Jesus is alive. Saul’s testimony is a powerful piece of evidence for the Resurrection.

A point of difference between moon landings & the Resurrection

Saul’s story illustrates one important difference between the evidence for the moon landings and the Resurrection. People who disbelieve the moon landings often claim ulterior motives on the part of NASA and the USA government. Supposedly, NASA did it to secure more state funding, while the USA wanted the prestige of winning the space race against the USSR. Alternatively, the government in 1969 was trying to distract the public from the Vietnam War. Today’s conspiracy theorists claim that Artemis II is a distraction from the war in Iran or the Epstein files.

Some of these purported motives are at least conceivable. Certainly, the USA wanted the prestige of winning the space race, and the benefits for domestic politics are not far-fetched. The astronauts themselves gained prestige that lasted their whole lives. They were hailed as national heroes, went on speaking tours, and were no doubt well rewarded for their work.

For an astronaut to stick with their original claim — that they actually went to the moon, or travelled in space — is not particularly difficult. At worst, they may encounter moon landing-deniers who call them liars. Buzz Aldrin famously punched one of them. In that case, the police took Buzz’s side because he was being harassed.

By contrast, finding ulterior motives for claiming that Jesus rose from the dead is extremely difficult. Within the broader Jewish community, these early eyewitnesses faced ridicule at best, torture and death at worst. If they didn’t realise this initially, it was beyond doubt after Stephen was stoned to death. At that point, the rest of them could have recanted — if they really did steal the body of Jesus, then the game was up. Come clean or die.

Saul (known later as Paul) was ultimately beheaded, while Peter was crucified upside down. Many of the other thousands who believed in the Resurrection went the same way. When Rome finally turned on the Christians, they took persecution to new levels — crucifixion, being burned alive or fed to the lions were just some forms of the torture and death inflicted upon Christians in the few centuries after the Resurrection.

Being a Christian in those early days came with none of the advantages that astronauts have and many huge disadvantages that astronauts have never had to face. No one tortured Buzz Aldrin (or any other astronaut) to try and get him to deny the moon landing.

Questions for the sceptics

As a believer in both the moon landings and the Resurrection, I have questions for people who do not believe in one or both of these historical events.

First, is your scepticism reasonable? Ask yourself whether there is any reasonable evidence that would convince you to change your mind — unreasonable evidence includes things like being strapped into a rocket yourself, or seeing video footage of Jesus walking out of the tomb.

Second, have you really pursued answers to your doubts with an open mind? Have you read widely around the topic, including the eyewitness accounts? Have you taken these seriously and considered if it makes sense that hundreds of people created elaborate cover-up stories that include failure and embarrassment?

Finally, for those who accept moon landings but not the Resurrection: unlike NASA, the USA government, and the astronauts, the original disciples and early Christians had nothing to gain and everything to lose for their claim. Yet they went to their graves sticking to their stories. Is that not a good reason take their claims seriously and examine the evidence for yourself?

© 2026 Gail Thomson. Want more content like this? Explore more articles in Exploring Scripture.

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