The Consolations of Anthropomorphism

Curiously enough, aeronautical science chose Christmas Eve 1968 to register one of its most important milestones of the last century. That is when the three crew members of NASA’s Apollo 8 mission marked humanity’s first-ever voyage into lunar orbit by reading aloud passages from Genesis. The transmission to Earth of this unprecedented rite was then the most widely viewed television broadcast ever. Later accounts from the participating astronauts and mission control administrators described the key actors in the spectacle as having been in tears.

The most obvious message seemed to be that all the rocket science in the world had not displaced the reigning mythologies of western civilization. Lest the technical achievement proclaim our hubris, our putative life manual, the Bible, served to remind all that we were merely talented engineers operating at the disposal of an omniscient one.

Of course, our humility only ever goes so far. Genesis may have...