Why was the Tower of Babel built?

Question

I know that people back then didn't have today's grasp of science, but it still is funny to think that people could actually build something to heaven. They would only end up in outerspace. Heaven is probably in another dimension.

Answer 1

The Tower of Babel stood for mankind attempting to become equal with God. The people attempted to build a temple into heaven. God did not like the direction He saw man headed in, so He made them speak in different languages. This led to a dispersion of mankind across the Earth. The "tower of Babel" is only mentioned once in Scripture:

Answer 2

People back then believed that Earth was a flat disk and the sky a solid dome overhead, supported on pillars. It was not very far away and one could reach it if one built a tall enough tower. Heaven and the sky were one and the same--it was where God lived, above the solid dome. All these beliefs are mirrored in the Bible. In Genesis, we read of God opening "the floodgates of heaven," a reference to the belief that the sky-dome contained windows or sluices from which rain water fell. The story of the sun and moon standing still is a reference to the notion that God could move the moon, sun, stars, and other heavenly bodies like chess pieces. The Tower of Babel is a cautionary tale showing that, while it was possible to build a tower tall enough to reach heaven/the sky (which was not very far above the ground, really), God would get angry and curse people.

None of this was unreasonable to ancient people. They were very observant and had to base their beliefs on what they could see with their eyes; and without telescopes, that wasn't very much. The sky DOES look like a dome that stretches overhead to the circular horizon, and the stars, moon, sun, and planets do appear to go around the Earth, so that is how they based their cosmology and their religion. They can be excused for not knowing any better, but it is inexcusable for modern-day Christians to still take those old stories literally.

Answer 3

It was in this valley that the group decided to rebel against God. How so? Well, Jehovah God had expressed his purpose when he commanded the first human couple to “be fruitful and become many and fill the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) This was repeated to Noah and his sons after the Flood. God instructed them: “As for you men, be fruitful and become many, make the earth swarm with you and become many in it.” (Genesis 9:7) In opposition to Jehovah’s direction, the people built a city so that they would not “be scattered over all the surface of the earth.”

These people also began to build a tower with the purpose of making “a celebrated name” for themselves. But contrary to their expectations, they did not complete construction of the tower. The Bible record shows that Jehovah confused their language so that they could not understand one another. “Accordingly,” says the inspired account, “Jehovah scattered them from there over all the surface of the earth, and they gradually left off building the city.” Genesis 11:7, 8.

The complete failure of this venture is highlighted by the fact that the names of the builders never became “celebrated,” or well-known.

Answer 4

The reason they started building the tower of Babel is given in scripture.

After the flood God commanded them to multiply and fill the earth.

Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth."

However, sometime later when there were more people, they didn't want to scatter over the earth, in defiance of God's command. They wanted to stay together in one place. So they started to build the tower of Babel as a rallying place to stay together.

Genesis 11:4 They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

So God confused their language by suddenly causing different groups of people to speak mutually unintelligible languages. At that point the people gathered together in groups who could understand each other. They stopped building the city and scattered abroad.

Genesis 11:7 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

Answer 5

God had commanded Noah and his sons, and their descendants to "be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth" at least twice in the ninth chapter of Genesis. In the 11th Chapter, men primarily built the "city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Gen. 11:4b (NIV) It probably wasn't intended to actually reach the heavens anymore than modern high-rise buildings actually "scrape the sky" (as in "skyscraper")! They did this both as idol worship and in direct disobedience to God's commandment to be fruitful and to scatter over the whole earth and fill it.

Answer 6

Yes, I agree. Heaven is considered to be "above" us, so therefore I take it to mean it is a higher dimension.
But the people of that era were as ignorant as they are today; they had high IQs but little common sense. They were determined to prove that they could reach God simply by building a large enough tower. I guess they actually thought they could just climb up and say "Hi," to God whenever they pleased?
At any rate, they sound about as bright as some of the yo-yos living today.

Answer 7

Since heaven in that case includes at least part of the lower atmosphere, it's akin to building a tall tower. But one could say their pride reached higher.

Answer 8

As a metaphor, all you have to imagine is a tower twice as tall as any other building a person has imagined.

And in the story, I think it's not so much that God thinks they will actually reach heaven, it's that they are trying.

Answer 9

Because that is the whole philosophy behind Faith. However absurd the suggestion (for example a man is born to someone who has never had sex, preaches at people and then dies to avenge the sins of two mythical people in an imaginary garden who ate some fruit given to them by a nasty snake then rises from the dead three days later, pushing aside a gargantuan rock in the process) we HAVE to believe it or we are not 'in the club'.

God told someone to build a tower (How? - did he have a celestial megaphone?) so for fear of being damned eternally in the fires of Hell, they built one.

The whole religion thing is scarily pervasive and is quashing free thought across the planet, especially in the red states in the USA.

God does not exist, there is no heaven, when we die, we rot in the ground and become part of the circle of life - the same circle that states that the earth is almost 5 billion years old and that we evolved from apes.

Religious people are so blind to facts, it's scary.

Answer 10

What is even more funny is that at that time God had such a fright that they were trying to build a tower to reach him that he brought confusion among them by giving them different languages but nowadays he does not worry that we build skyscrapers and spaceshuttles. Maybe heaven was a lot lower that time or he realised since that it is impossible to reach into heaven with a simple tower.