Tower Of Babel

by Blue Grass 65 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Blue Grass

  Note:This was a post I made on another thread but I felt it was off topic so I giving it it's own thread.

  Someone(who I can't remember) on a thread(which I can't remember) said the Tower of Babel story is proven false because some languages evolved from others and thus that was another strike against the Bible as being fiction. However this person doesn't realize that there are languages on this earth that has absolutely no relation whatsoever such as Chinese-English, Spanish-Arabic, Greek-Xhosa, etc. Not to mention all of the ancient languages that are now extinct due to invading countries forcing their own language on other countries. Rather than acknowledge these obvious facts, the indiviual decided to turn off his brain and pretend every language on this earth stems from one language just so they could justify critizing an accurate account in the Bible. This is something that is done very frequently by atheist on this site. They stop using common sense just so they can nip pick at any and everything in the Bible no matter how unfounded the attack is.
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  cameo-d

  Hi Blue Grass.

  Is it possible that the Tower of Babel is a metaphor? Not meaning all the world's people speaking one vocal language, but rather, all the worlds people being united in one accord?

  But more than that, are many of us not united in one language with the "language" being speaking the truth?

  And are we not all "reaching into the heavens" in our search for truth?
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  RubaDub

  there are languages on this earth that has absolutely no relation whatsoever such as Chinese-English, Spanish-Arabic, Greek-Xhosa

  Excellent point.

  As further proof, might I add Korean-Pig Latin to the list.

  Rub a Dub
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  undercover

  ...an accurate account in the Bible.

  Speaking of not using common sense...
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  Narkissos

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/180441/1/God-confused-peoples-language-so-they-couldnt-build-Babel-a-load-of-crap

  Imo you can learn more about the (fictional) nature of the Babel story by comparing it with ancient Mesopotamian legends (see the last post in the above thread, which points out that it is a conflation of two independent stories, only one of which had to do with the confusion of languages) than by comparing it to the actual history of languages...

  And fwiw, in my book "fiction" does NOT equal "load of crap"... it is an excellent story imo.
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  megs

  I find it interesting that you use the term "turn off their brain"... Have you not done that? It seems that you have the conclusion you want and are looking for evidence to support that conclusion... Perhaps I am wrong.
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  PSacramento

  I have a good friend of mine, he teaches ancient languages at the local university and speaks a bunch of them, reads and writes them too, stuff like Ancient greek, Japanese, Mandarin AND Cantonese, Russian, Portuguese and Latin, to name just a few.

  When I asked him how he does it he said, "All languages are pretty much the same, that all have commonalities, you just have to find them, it a mathematical thing".

  Now, I speak English, French, Portugese, Spanish and a smudge of Japanese and I don't even have a "thing" for languages, but even in those I can see some commonalites.
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  elder-schmelder

  I have a question that I have received a good answer to. Was the tower of babel taller then Burj Dubai? If it was not, then why dont God give a crap about this building?

  I dont think that the tower of babel could have been that tall with out modern tech.

  Is it possible that the tower fell over "not from God" but just because they did not have the building tech?

  elder-schmelder
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  OnTheWayOut

  ...an accurate account in the Bible.

  UC beat me to pointing out the insertion of such a ridiculous conclusion.
  Chinese and English may not have anything in common or the languages that would help us link them are "extinct."
  They may have developed separately or not.

  But it was already pointed out that taking the "Tower of Babel" story literally means taking the tower literally.
  How tall was it going to be? Would it really reach the heavens in some way that disturbed God? In a pre-steel age, I find this tower fascinating. It must have had a base that was absolutely massive, perhaps several square miles.

  Is the rest of Genesis literal? What a mean old son-of-a-bitch that God is. You can have him.
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  marmot

  You really should read The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. Fascinating book.