I have yet to hear of a single Native American, Englishman, Norse, Zulu, Aborigini, Eskimo, Mexican, Hawaiian, Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, or Russian claim that their language started when their ancestors were building a great towering building to reach the heavens and god knocked it down. Why do you answer serious questions with this fairy tale?
If this upsets you, apologize in advance, but isn't it clear that this story is NOT to be taken literally, even if you are a believer of the Judaic faith and it's spin-offs?
2007-06-26 07:55:58 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Not to mention it doesn't make any sense with what even christians know today...
Back when that story came about christians believed the bible when it mentions the world is a flat, immovable oval built on four pillars and the heaven is in the sky above the "firmament." The whole basis of that story is that they built a huge tower and could climb up to heaven...
Well, there are problems with this alone... for one, we know that heaven isn't in the sky, once you pass the atmosphere you just have the vacuum of space. There would be no reason for god to freak out - especially since people would die from lack of oxygen and people would realize very quickly not to go up the tower... a tower which would lead nowhere except space...
People who take the story literally actually believe you can build a giant tower into heaven? What about space shuttles? We've far surpassed towers now.. and if god was really afraid of the tower, why didn't he stop anybody from building our spaceships?
We've been up and far beyond that point, and no heaven. The entire story falls completely apart when confronted with reality. Hell, it all falls apart if you just give it a minor degree of thought.
Of course the fact that most cultures don't trace their language roots back to a stupid tower, the fact that we can trace back many languages to the etymological origins, and the fact that some languages (such as Chinese) existed before the bible claims the earth was "created", and so on... these are just the icing on the absurdity cake.
You really can't help but laugh at people who take the babel seriously.
2007-06-26 13:27:13 · answer #1 · answered by Mike K 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
More arguments have been started over people reading the Bible & taking everything in it literally.
Building a tower to reach the heavens means they were building a very tall building. God knocked it down...could be a natural disaster or something that knocked the tower down.
You must remember that the people did not talk as we do now. The heavens to them meant the same thing as sky means to us. This is the problem with so many translations.
2007-06-26 08:26:23 · answer #2 · answered by jitterbug 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
assume what's going to occur if via the web, inside 50 years every body will probably be speakme one language and on the way to final for a few generations till the historic languages are forgotten. then comes a cataclysm and destroyes the online, as good as contemporary shipping. humans end up remoted once more and reinvent their languages :) that is kind of just like the tower of babel.
2016-09-05 08:48:25 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
People evolve languages among common groups of people .
I would be surprised if the world established one language .
Since people in Asia would have nothing in common with people in northern Europe .
Unless the tower of Babble was being constructed some 100 ,000 years ago it is a complete fabrication .
2007-06-26 08:35:48 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You don't understand -- god was concerned that people would build a tower to heaven and invade heaven. He had to confound the languages to keep that from happening.
He said "Let us go down and confound their language." So he and about a billion angels descended upon them and scared them out of their wits, and that's what confounded their language -- sheer panic.
My understanding is that the whole thing started with a friendly wager between god and Satan, but then god freaked out when he saw how tall they were making it.
2007-06-26 08:04:49 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Another question about the Tower: which group of people got to keep their own original native language?
2007-06-26 08:00:24 · answer #6 · answered by Mathsorcerer 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Read Genesis 11
After the flood, Noah and his descendants were the only survivors. They ALL spoke the same language of Noah.
Everyone understood everyone.
When all the peoples got together and decided to build The Tower of Babel which would reach to Heaven, God saw that it was not good, so he changed everyone's language and scattered them over the face of the earth.
2007-06-26 08:14:56 · answer #7 · answered by faith 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Languages evolve. They blend with other languges. They simply die away. Most groups of people don't speak their language that exact same way their ancestors had spoken.
2007-06-26 08:03:11 · answer #8 · answered by rdb_tigers101 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Shame is often edited out of ancient history. The Bible isn't trying to protect anyone who isn't in the faith of God, and still there may be a story of shame in it.
2007-06-26 08:02:02 · answer #9 · answered by Christian Sinner 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋
Just a convenient explanation for the "story tellers" of old.
2007-06-26 08:03:00 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋