If God kept men from building a tower to "heaven," why did he allow us to build machines that could fly into "heaven?"
In Genesis 11, mankind was in some sense striving for equality with God. This was not only unrighteous, it was dangerous and not in mankind's best interest. God intervenes, as he does at other times in Genesis, for our own good. Exploring the world, whether by ship, airplane, rail, car, bathysphere, or spacecraft, is to thrill to the discovery, learning, and appreciation of nature and its mysterious laws. This is good.
Airplanes fly only into the "first heaven" (the atmosphere), not the "third heaven" (the presence of God). Experts tell us that atop the ziggurats -- the Tower of Babel was likely one of these -- were temples of idolatry. Mankind has always been asserting his own sovereignty! Boeing and Airbus may inadvertently contribute to the humanism of our age, but they are not involved in the soul-wrecking enterprise of idolatry. For more on Babel, see my book on Genesis in the Book section of this website.
Fly and fly boldly!
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