We Choose to Go to the Moon

Religion's purpose is to inspire. We believe because it offers us comfort and clarity in a confusing and cacophonous world. So, when religious language and sentiment are used beyond the scope of religion, that use is often powerful. Last weekend, while I was in Central Florida, I paid a visit to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) - the preeminent spaceport here in the United States. The purpose of the American space program was forever changed on a sunny September day in 1962 when President Kennedy announced his intention to see American astronauts go to the Moon by the end of that decade.

In that instant, the power of religion was refocused onto the power of our belief in our own potential. This humanism is bathed in that same optimism that radiates from religion. In every building at KSC the experience begins with a film, and each film concludes with a rousing and resounding bit of triumphal music. The Visitor Complex at KSC is itself a monument to human ingenuity, to all that we have and will accomplish as a species. Through our confrontation of great technical challenges in spaceflight we prove to ourselves that we can accomplish great things to better our lives here on Earth.

The night before my visit to KSC, I watched the 1997 film Contact starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. Throughout the story of a fictional first contact, the question of whether religion and science can complement each other reigned supreme. To me this has never really been a question; both science and religion have their own places in our lives. Faith teaches us to aspire to greater things, and to acknowledge that there's always more out there that we may never fully understand. Our methods of understanding continue to help us make sense of an ever-broadening Cosmos. Yet it is the human optimism of a better tomorrow born out of faith that inspires us to keep exploring.

Oh Lord, help us to stay curious. Amen.

Seán is a Ph.D. Candidate in History in New York