David Coppedge remembers that moment. He also remembers astronaut Buzz Aldrin's quoting of Psalm 8 as the Apollo 11 mission returned in July 1969: "'When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the Moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man that Thou art mindful of him?'"

But it seems that times have changed. Coppedge, a longtime computer administrator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), lost his job on Jan. 24, nearly two years after he was demoted for his support of intelligent design. ...