The Tower of Babble story kind of comes across as random to me. It doesn’t really involve any other Genesis characters, in fact, nobody is named. It seems to really only lay the timeless traditions of human cultures having many languages (makes sense) and not building really tall buildings because that’s bad. I guess that’s a thing? Maybe it makes sense. I mean, they can kind of be eyesores I suppose…maybe God likes a good view of the horizon and we’re getting in his way. He spent too much on this timeshare and some jerk put a darned building in his way!
So the story begins with a group of people who want to be recognized and be the best so they decide they’re going build a huge tower that gets to the heavens. God doesn’t appreciate this, in his mind, he’s all like, “if they can build a huge tower then they can do anything!” The fear being expressed is that God doesn’t want people to become equivalent to him. Also, you know how you were taught that you can be anything you want if you put your mind to it? Well, according to God you can become God but he’ll knock down your stupid tower if you try to be. God is a jerk. Maybe God is Godzilla. I don’t know, just something to think about. Oh yeah, spoiler alert, because God doesn’t want people to be like him he knocks the crap out of their tower and then decides they all speak different languages.
There kind of seems to be an implication that technological improvements are bad for society. In these human efforts to improve their selves and do great things, God decides he can’t handle the effort and stops it. Maybe this is meant more as an explanation for natural disasters or something? It’s possible I guess. But it seems like this version of God would not be cool with skyscrapers or the space program. Heck, it could even be construed as a God who isn’t okay with medical advancements which if you look at metaphorically could be considered as mankind trying to build a “tower” to immortality. If this is the case, though, dudes! you get to live to 800 all the time. That’s plenty of living. Especially in a world where God gets all annoyed and doesn’t let you sit under trees naked because you ate a freakin’ apple. So definite ignorance is bliss vibe going on here and I feel as though some people could utilize this story for anti-science and whatnot. All things that I’m not too high on.
I will say this, though at first glance, I wasn’t too thrilled with gaining any sort of personal morality from this story but I do think there are a couple of things that stand out. In a way, this society is punished for trying to stand out amongst all societies. Even though God’s anger isn’t really directed at this, they still are punished for doing so. One could say in that trying to separate themselves from others they fall. Also, there is an implication that all people who speak different languages came from one group meaning there is an interconnectivity between all groups of people who speak different languages and I like that. I like the idea of all nationalities coming from one. I’m not the type who gets too angry about the “press 1 for English stuff.” There’s a message of unity hidden in there are that’s cool. I just feel like God isn’t a part of it. In fact, in this story, he seems to be more antagonist and adversary which doesn’t really work with Christian tradition.
Josh Tries Religion 