I misspoke in my earlier post. The builders of the tower did not say they wanted to be like Gods.

My dad would say that they got too big for their britches which is why God put a stop to it.

In my view honest space exploration can only lead to the Creator.

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Todd

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John

Hi john

Travis is correct. The builders of the tower were being disobedient. Of course everyone else on the planet was as well which is why the flood was necessary. I think there was an element of pride in their endeavor.

I don't think space exploration is a prideful thing but folks may disagree about the merits of it.

I am hoping that Travis will elucidate further on what he thinks of this because he seems to be against it on moral grounds and I am curious about that.

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Todd

It is hard to say all you want to say when you are trying to post from your phone. Let me elaborate.

I don't see any real connection between the tower of Babel and the modern day space race. It seems to me that the Atheist is not understanding what happened at Babel. The people were not trying to get into space or to somehow build a tower so high that they could reach the abode of God physically. The original post seemed to me to imply that the Atheist believed that God would be very strange indeed to have disallowed and judged those at Babel for what He is freely allowing in modern times. This perspective would show a misunderstanding of Babel. The people wanted to make a name for themselves lest they be scattered. No doubt there was idolatry in the mix, the worship of false gods, but the great city they sought to build and the tower were, in my understanding, meant to be the center of civilization. Remember, we are not very far from the flood at this point in time. Shem was alive at the same time as Abraham, so we are dealing with a relatively short time frame here. God has commanded man to scatter, to spread out over the earth and populate the earth. They did not obey Him, and so he confounded the languages. This effectively separated the people who naturally, due to language barrier and probably a GREAT deal of new-found fear of God, put geographical distance between themselves.

I was not implying that space exploration was somehow inherently ungodly. What I meant was this. In the beginning of the space program, the driving force behind space exploration seemed to me to be a real quest for scientific knowledge and for ways to utilize space. Without satellites and the space program, I would not be able to post my thoughts on Sermonindex. Because of space technology we are reaching more people with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ than ever.

However, now it seems that the motivation to explore is based in assumptions that come from a Godless view of the universe. They are trying very hard to find life on other planets, any kind of life, because they have a core belief that life came from somewhere...anywhere...but the creator God. They are searching hard for signs that Mars could have once supported life. They are searching hard for planets in other solar systems that they think could harbor life. The SETI program is listening intently for any kind of ordered signals that could be interpreted as communication from other life in other solar systems. They hope in some way to find out how we can live on another planet, primarily because they think that this one will go on forever but will reach a point of being either too heavily populated to support us all, or that it will become too polluted to support us. I remember the movie called Wally that, though whimsical, was based on just that scenario. So what I am saying is that the motivation behind the things we are trying to do in space has shifted so that it is based on a Godless worldview.

Hope that clarifies a bit.

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Travis

Thanks Travis that helps. I agree with you for the most part.

What will you think when they finally confirm that there is indeed life somewhere else? ;)

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Todd

Well, if the Bible is the true history of the universe, I think I they are going to search on vain.

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Travis

I am not sure what to think of that statement. Obviously the bible doesn't tell us everything there is possibly to know.

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Todd

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John

RE: /// Obviously the bible doesn't tell us everything there is possibly to know.///

This may well be true, but if we dig beyound the surface of Scripture we will find that it reveales much more than we relieze.

I agree PP that principles certainly go deeper than the words on the page but certain facts about the universe are simply not mentioned. It would not be possible to mention everything.

Some Christians might state that Gen 1 rules out extraterrestrial life; I certainly don't but that is just my opinion. It doesn't tell us about the meteor strike that wiped out the dinos or the cataclysmic Yellowstone volcanic eruptions.

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Todd