The last man to have landed and walked on the moon has left Earth again—this time for good.
Apollo 17 Astronaut Eugene Cernan passed away on Monday in a hospital in Houston, Texas surrounded by family members as a result of "ongoing health issues," according to a statement by his family posted on the NASA website. He was 82.
Cernan is best remembered for the statements he made describing his last mission to the moon in December 1972. In a 2007 NASA Oral History Project interview, Cernan stated that standing on the surface of the moon he felt like he was looking at the Earth from "God's front porch," adding that the experience convinced him of the existence of God, according to God Reports.
"Science and technology got me there, but when I got there and I looked back home at the Earth, science and technology could not explain what I was seeing nor what I was feeling," he said. "You look at the Earth, and it very majestically yet mysteriously rotates on an axis you can't see but must be there. There are no strings holding it up. It moves with purpose. It moves with logic."
Cernan said in space one could clearly see the design and fine-tuning of the universe with God's fingerprints all over His creations.
"The Earth doesn't tumble through space; it moves with logic and certainty and with beauty beyond comprehension," he said. "It's just too beautiful to have happened by accident. There has to be somebody bigger than you and me that put it all together. There's no question in my mind that there's a Creator of the universe. There's a God up there. Someone—some being, some power—placed our little world, our sun and our moon where they are in the dark void.
"The scheme defies any attempt at logic; it's just too perfect and beautiful. I can't tell you how or why it exists in this special way, but I know, because I've been out there and I've seen the endlessness of space and time with my own eyes."
Cernan admitted that although he was raised as a Catholic, he was not "an incredibly religious person."
He also clarified that his statements were not of a religious but of a spiritual nature.
"Religion is man-made," he said. "The Creator I'm talking about stands above all those religions. I believe you can address that Creator in any way you want."
