![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm not a spiritual person...
Aug. 23rd, 2010 07:01 pm...but some things move me in what can only be described in woo-ish terms. Take this photo:
That's the Earth and Moon as seen from Mercury, courtesy of the MESSENGER probe.
That big light is everything we are. From Aristophanes to Woody Allen. Every war fought for a great cause and every pointless fight fueled by alcohol. You, me, and all out ancestors back to the lemur like creatures we evolved from. Every cultural reference and influence in your life, and lives of the billions of other humans living out their three score and ten on this planet in that one bright dot in the Mercurian sky.
But there's more. See that smaller dot? We alone among all known forms of life have reached forth from our home and walked on another world. 12 humans have walked on the Moon, and now we send probes across the solar system to pry knowledge from dead worlds. And return images like this.
I don't believe in an independent, sapiant deity, but if there is one I can only suppose that it is thrilled with our reach and vision.
That's the Earth and Moon as seen from Mercury, courtesy of the MESSENGER probe.
That big light is everything we are. From Aristophanes to Woody Allen. Every war fought for a great cause and every pointless fight fueled by alcohol. You, me, and all out ancestors back to the lemur like creatures we evolved from. Every cultural reference and influence in your life, and lives of the billions of other humans living out their three score and ten on this planet in that one bright dot in the Mercurian sky.
But there's more. See that smaller dot? We alone among all known forms of life have reached forth from our home and walked on another world. 12 humans have walked on the Moon, and now we send probes across the solar system to pry knowledge from dead worlds. And return images like this.
I don't believe in an independent, sapiant deity, but if there is one I can only suppose that it is thrilled with our reach and vision.
