Gen 1:3-25 Apollo 8

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts spoke live in one of the most watched broadcasts of the time. Sounding like they were speaking down a crackly telephone line, this is what they said:

William Anders:
"We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Jim Lovell
"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Frank Borman
"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."


Someone responded by trying to sue the United States government for a violation of the First Amendment but it was dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction. (According to Wikipedia Buzz Aldrin secretly received communion on the lunar surface shortly after landing in Apollo 11.)
Putting the controversy aside for a moment what does this passage tell me? God not only spoke the universe into being but there was a process involved in it. In computer graphics packages you have extrusion operations as well as creation operations. You make a sphere, then you pull out a bit of it, or you create a cube and extend one side of it to make a rectangle. You make and you shape. And that seems to be what's happening here. In these verses God creates and separates. Then in the next verse he populates. Such creativity.

One of my hobbies (ok I don't really have that many) is programming little virtual worlds. I get such a buzz out of creating water, land, sky and then filling them with plants and animals. As well as modelling, one of the main aspects of computer graphics is light; describing mathematically how it reflects, and refracts, and scatters on a surface. Light is so cool to play around with and it's God's idea. I wonder if I would get away with describing computer programming as worship:-)