GakuseiDon

Ah yes, but archaelogical evidence shows no signs of cords. Therefore they must have used cordless drills.

The Path of Needles

Your trying to make sense of scriptures? I've got better things to do like kinky flash games or watch monkeys drink their urine.
:devil2:

premjan

Does this mean that skyscrapers are verboten?

Kosh

Wait till we start building the space elevator...

Weltall

Why bother? I've seen the anime and movies: Sooner or later it always explodes spectacularly.

Chaupoline

The people came from the East and built a city. “Whose top may reach unto heaven” refers to the building of ziggurats. The three stairways are accesses to the sacred areas of the priests, and it was believed that the priests communicated directly with the gods in heaven. In Mesopotamia, the priests were the leaders of the people, so therefore they were the ones who directed the people and gave them directions and purpose. “Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” The identification of us by name regards the stating that they are all one people.

The builders of Babel believed that they could unite all the people that came with them from the East and develop their city, and their tower. The problem with this belief is that people have different points of view and different ambitions for themselves. Like every utopian system it failed because it was under the impression that everyone wants the same thing.

The Tower of Babel is a metaphor for the inability of man to unite together as one and unlock their full potential.

Atheos

That's certainly one way to look at it. It's not the only possible interpretation. It could be any of the following, each of which has an equal claim to your assertion:

• Bronze-age people may have believed it actually happened exactly as described
• It could simply be a story someone made up to explain why not everyone speaks the same language
• It's possible that certain elements of the story did in fact happen: A community began building this tower and perhaps they were invaded by people who spoke a different language. The story evolved over time into its current form.

These are just off the top of my head. I'm sure others could easily add plausible origin/interpretations to this list.

premjan

I.e. no communism?

The Evil One

That's an interesting view, however, it's nto what the text says. The text does not say that Babel failed because their leaders did not take into account variety of viewpoint. Indeed, there is no hint anywhere in the text of any dissension or difference of points of view among the people who came from the East.

Rather, the text says that Babel failed because the LORD directly intervened to stop it succeeding. In other words, it was not the failure of human utopianism, but divine intervention, that foiled Babel's plans.

Xoxarle

Isn't it also true that Babel, literally translated, means "confused"? That alone suggests the story was apocryphal.

How do Apologists account for God being alarmed at a tower several hundred feet tall, several thousand years ago, but not by towers several thousand feet tall today? In conjunction with their belief that God is unchanging?

It seems a very tall order (excuse pun).

The existance of modern skyscrapers also prove that God's attempt to foil our grand designs was a miserable failure. Did He not anticipate that we would quickly learn to communicate across language barriers?