Arguable the Greatest Absurdity in the Holy Bible. Challenging Christans!?

Question

The Tower of Babel Story. I challenge all Christan's to defend this story. Keep in mind the Christan's i have spoke to believe this to be a literal event!

Genesis 11:1-9

We basically learn three things here #1 that the people who wrote the Bible thought that it would be architecturally possible to build a tower that would take you up to heaven. #2 That the biblical God became frighting at these bronze age architects in verse 6. #3 And action was taking at that point to to create all the different human languages instantaneously.

We have built sky scrappers that can reach much higher then anything they could have dreamed of back then. We have steal reinforced concrete instead of brick and mortar and we have better architectural designs and yet so far no one has yet to make it to heaven in an elevator. We also routinely travel to the clouds and back and yet God doesn't become frightened. We have travel to the moon and back and yet God didn't strike at NASA to prevent that from accruing.

Furthermore languages did not instantaneously come to be. They evolve overtime as a given group of people are separated from one another and the process continues. Anyone who dowts this read the old testament in the king James version with its Jacobean English and you can see right there how languages evolved

Since so many of you are bashing me with my type-o above i will correct myself its doubt not dowt i was in a hurry to get the extended explanation out before people started answering my question

Answer 1

even the devil believes and trembles

Answer 2

#1......They didn't think it was possible, the people who were building it did though. There was never any cause for alarm that they might actually succeed.

#2.....There is nothing in verse 6 that shows Him to be frightened. You must be using an inferior translation, or just don't understand the verse.

#3.....Modern man has landed on the moon and sent satallites to other galaxies too, did you forget that. Here the thing....modern man is not doing it for the same reason. First, these people were part of those who were told to multiply the earth, but they chose not to spread out. They then got into idol worship, and decided they needed to exhalt their city so that all would want to stay there and take part in their worship of idols and so forth. They turned their back on God. They were going to use the tower to make themselves more of a focal point than God...challenging Him. That being the case, He made them speak different languages. Modern man still contempts, rejects, and challenges God, but, has not built any skyscrapers for the same purpose they were building the tower.

Lastly, anyone who calls themselves Christian, and says the words God inspired men to write are just made up stories, limits Him to the point that He is not God at all.

Answer 3

How do we know that ancient people could not build sky scrappers back then. Well, maybe these people couldn't becuz they obviously failed.
Maybe these people were building their skyscraper to reach the heavens and become like God. Maybe they intended to institute themselves as God instead of the real God.
Maybe their scattering abroad and the subsequent development of different languages(I didn't see the word instantaneously in the story) was a natural result of their scattering abroad across the earth.
Maybe the Bible tells the story in a summarized way---maybe it doesn't go into all the details.
Whatever happened there at the tower of Babel, it resulted in people abandoning that tower and scattering over the earth. Naturally their languages would differ over time.
God becoming frightened? It doesn't say He was.

Answer 4

Well, the Christians you talked to are wrong. Here is an exegetical interpretation of the passage in question.

This story, based on traditions about the temple towers or ziggurats of Babylonia, is used by the sacred writer primarily to illustrate man's increasing wickedness, shown here in his presumptuous effort to create an urban culture apart from God. The secondary motive in the story is to present an imaginative origin of the diversity of the languages among the various peoples inhabiting the earth, as well as an artificial explanation of the name "Babylon."

2 [2] Shinar: see note on Genesis 10:10.

3 [4] Tower with its top in the sky: a direct reference to the chief ziggurat of Babylon, the E-sag-ila, signifying "the house that raises high its head." Babylonian ziggurats were the earliest skyscrapers.

Answer 5

Arguable is right. The people who wrote the Bible are not the ones who tried to build the tower. God did not become frightened.
verse 6 says that and the Lord said; Behold the people IS one. and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have IMAGINED to do.
God saw that they were beginning to think that they were able to do that which they could not, and that was because they all spoke with one language.
verse 7 says that He confounded there language, which means that they did all start to speak different languages, instantaneously.
When we build sky scrapers, it is not us trying to reach Heaven. Or when we fly to the moon, or above the clouds. We are not trying to reach Heaven before God has intended for us to. And the ones in Babel would not have either, but God knew that they were trying to, He didn't confound the languages because He was afraid, but because they were getting(for lack of better words) to big for their britches, so to speak and imagining that they could reach God that way.
This is my interpretation of it, you may think it is wrong, but you are entitled to do so.

Answer 6

1#. The people who wrote the Bible wrote about what the people who were building the Tower THOUGHT they could achieve by doing so. Not the writers own opinion.

2# Well I didn't read anything to do with God being affraid. Are you reading out of an edited Bible. Try the KJ version.

But anyway, you took those nine verses out of context.

3# You see, God isn't punishing NASA or the huge skyscrapers because they are not trying to get to heaven. God was punishing these people for thinking AND trying to get to heaven by themselves. 'WITHOUT SALVATION'. Doing it their OWN way, when they should have been following God.

However, God was MERCIFUL enough not to smite them all and kill them, instead, he confused their language so they could not co-operate. Gen 11 vs 6 - 7:

"6If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down and confuse thei language so they will not understand each other."

I'm glad I follow such and loving, merciful, patient God

Answer 7

#1- They did not think it architecturally possible to build a tower to the sky. They just knew that some dumb bronze-agers thought it.

#2- God was not in the least bit frightened, only offended. He was offended, not because of the size of their tower, but because of what it stood for- humans trying to exalt themselves and their own greatness whilste thumbing their noses at God. He made humanity in His own image, and acknowledged that humans could accomplish great things. But to show humanity's utter dependence on Him and utter frailty, He confused their languages and put an abrupt end to their unified self-exaltation.

#3- All natural languages did not come to be in that instant, although their ancestor languages did, and possibly the continuing tendancy for languages to diverge and new ones to evolve from the old. Perhaps this all involved simple and small tweaks to the Wernicke's areas and Broca's areas of the people's brains. Or perhaps new languages developed later as a result of humankind's newfound tendancy to roam after the Babel judgement, thereby preventing universal language norms to be reinforced among all communities speaking the same language, letting those languages diverge and split.

Human accomplishment does not offend God. Human arrogance does. Today, we await another judgement, the Day of the Lord when Christ returns to earth and judges us according to what we've done, and what we've done it for. But He is patient with us out of love, giving us plenty of time and opportunity to turn away from sin and turn to Him. But, He will not put it off forever.

Answer 8

How do you know that they could not build anything that high? People have built HUGE, BEAUTIFUL structures in ancient times with no steel or any other modern tool! How do you know that the God didn't make different languages all in one day? The correct answer is you don't. As to your question about space travel, maybe it's because God has already sent his last covenant to earth. Jesus changed everything and after he ascended to heaven, we were left with our faith and the teachings of Jesus. God had to do all those things in the early days to show us his MIGHT and that HE meant busniess. He has already shown us so much. Why should he have to prove anything now? I have my faith and that is all that I need. As for you, you should get some and quick, 'cause Jesus is coming!!

Answer 9

you are trying so hard to disprove something that you are missing the bigger picture altogether. Actually you are missing the smaller message of the story as well.

Here are a few facts:
Mesopotamian ziggurats were staged temple towers that lifted worshippers closer to their gods. The biblical ziggurat, called the Tower of Babel, symbolized humanity in rebellion against God in their attempt to ascend to heaven. The Tower of Babel story has come to symbolize human sin.

Answer 10

Your conclusive doctrine about this event from the Bible serves only to gather support from other non-believers. You have to remember, that you only have a thumb-nail "sketch" written about this event, lacking ALL the pertinent details. Supported is your conclusion is by conjecture and presumptuous insight into this issue, lacking in absolute proof that YOUR rebuttal is paramount concerning this event. As a matter of fact, science acknowledges a society existing back around this era in time, having even, knowledge comparable to that of this era (apart from space travel) We tend to think since we are "modern", we have the "corner" on everything. As the King Solomon's words echoes over history, "Nothing new under the sun". God was delaying the arrival of mankind, at the historical juncture where he could eradicate life from the earth re: focus on verse 6 "NOTHING will be restrained from them they IMAGINED to do" ! God changed the course of history at this juncture to fall into line with His Devine Plan (Jesus Christ hadn't of even, came to earth as a man, yet).

Answer 11

Your problem is that you don't know about the Hebrew translates as being 'heaven', it has different levels. One heaven is the sky where the birds fly and the wind blows.

I can build a tower that high! lol

Strong's Number: 08064
Shamayim
Noun Masculine
heaven, heavens, sky

1. visible heavens, sky
1. as abode of the stars
2. as the visible universe, the sky, atmosphere, etc
2. Heaven (as the abode of God)

So . . . . that was it?