Clerics in space. Ugh.

In an article about the need for humanity to travel to the stars, I found this gem:

The 100 Year Starship project was founded with seed money from the Defense Advanced Research Projects agency (DARPA), and is now being run by Jemison's Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence. The program's leaders aim to recruit not just scientists and engineers, but psychologists, sociologists, religious leaders and philosophers to help solve the problems posed by interstellar travel.

Indeed. And let's make it a priority of the first mission to the stars that they found a Vatican outpost or a large mosque the instant they arrive on a planet's surface. We must bring religion to those heathen aliens! It's the prime directive.

Ooo, ooo, ooo! And we absolutely need a church on the starship. It needn't occupy more than, say, 35% of the vessel's space. That should suffice.

It sure is good to see big thinkers including religion in plans for space voyages that will take place 100 years from now. But why not include astrologers? I hear they know everything about planets. And they could provide daily horoscopes for the crew. What a boon that would be!