[Q]
Christians, what exactly was the point in the Tower of Babel story...?
... if taken literally, there was no way humans would build a tower to reach heaven. unless heaven was within viewing distance, which for the sake of argument i'll assume it isn't.
allegorically, there's still not a point to the story.
{A]
Babylon was a tower in Iraq. There was a one world government at that time. Thus Babylon=Iraq=NWO
45 comments
Babylon was a tower in Iraq
Babylon was a city in what would one day become Iraq
There was a one world government at that time
That would explain all the other empire across central asia, the middle east, and north africa (Egypt, Assyria, etc.) at the time, wouldn't it?
Idiot
Thus Babylon=Iraq=NWO
Thus Aztlan=USA=Biscuits (i.e. Fail)
So close and yet so very, very, very far...
The Tower of Babel story is a way to explain why we all speak a different language.
Babylon was a tower in Iraq. There was a one world government at that time.
Babylon was a city and also the name given to a bronze age empire. According to the Bible, the tower was in Shinar. No one knows exactly where Shinar was. There certainly was not one world government back then. The Babylonian empire was overrun by the Assyrians and the Persians. This ignores the Mycenians, the Indians, the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese, all of which were flourishing in those days.
The OP is right - there's no point to the story. There's no way a primitive culture could have build a tower of any height out of mud brick and bitumen. The pyramids were the highest structure man was capable of building in those days, and there's some evidence even they had to lower their ambitions (see Snefru's Bent Pyramid at Dahshur). God, if He was omniscient, would have known this and just snickered at their efforts. He didn't stop the Empire State Building or satellite launches.
Correction:
- Babel (Babylon to the Greeks) was a CITY in Mesopotamia. Iraq didn't exist as a country until after WW I.
- No. There has never been a one world government.
- WTF is NWO? Not working out? National Wankers' Organisation?
- Now what about a real answer to the question?
@ GigaGuess,
Thanks!
"they believe that the atheist Muslim Satanists are going to unite the world under one government against them.@
Wow, any chance that might happen? I'd be willing to convert to a Muslim Shaitanist if I thought it would help!
However, who has their finger deepest in the Iraq pudding? GWB, I suspect... But isn't he the Darling of the religious right?
I is puzzled!
The POINT is that it's a parable about hubris. I've also seen it interpreted as against tyranny, by people talking about the suffering of those building big projects back then - e. g. Great Wall of China, pyramids - but that's a bit weaker.
Babel is basically a pun ("Bab-ilu" or "Bab-el" is a name for Babylon, meaning "gate of god", but it's a pun on the Hebrew word for "confuse", "balal".) I think literalists miss a lot.
@John: "There's no way a primitive culture could have build a tower of any height out of mud brick and bitumen." The tallest ancient Near East structure I can think of were the ziggurats (which is what Babel is traditionally pictured as). Etemenanki, the long-unfinished ziggurat often cited as the source of the Babel story, was 91 meters (over 300 feet) tall when finally finished in the 7th century BC. Not tall enough to pierce heaven.
As a point of "maybe interest", it's been calculated that the highest a straight-sided tower of brick could theoretically be made is 7000 feet, after which it would be crushed by its own weight. If it was tapered, it would be higher. (This is quoted in the wiki article on "Tower of Babel".) Obviously, though, none were ever built anywhere near that high.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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