The story goes that a woman once approached George Whitefield after one of his sermons and said something to the tune of, “Now, I enjoy your sermons as much as the next person, but why must you always keep on saying, ‘Ye must be born again!’?” Without skipping a beat, Whitefield looked the woman in the eyes and thundered: “Because ye must be born again!”

Andy Weir gets friendship absolutely right—and it’s not because of anything remotely to do with the naturalism or evolution espoused by many characters throughout the novel. Indeed, Project Hail Mary speaks with a distinctly Christian accent on the topics of love and friendship in ways that evolutionary biology can only lisp and blabber about incomprehensibly. In a purely naturalistic worldview, no such things as love, grace, courage, or friendship exist.