On here, we get to know one another because we all speak the same language, and thus, (behold!) we can communicate.

In the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel....God is portrayed as making them all speak in different tongues, so that they couldn't communicate......they believed themselves to be separate from one another, because they could not communicate.....

But Buddha - at the Hamburger Stall - said, 'Make me one with everything'.

I think we need to think about, what sort of 'God' would make people feel separate.

Skin - Brown (or sometimes pinkish beige)
Blood - Red - Always

Predator's blood is green. I don't think it's right to neglect aliens. God would have wanted all of his extra terrestrial alien worshipers a place near the collection plate no matter what color their blood is.

I don't think Predator's really the church donation type.

Oh yeah, sorry, and Mr.Spock's blood was green too......I forgot. Then there's the Umpa Lumpas to consider.

That'll teach me to start new threads.

Penelope wrote:On here, we get to know one another because we all speak the same language, and thus, (behold!) we can communicate.

In the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel....God is portrayed as making them all speak in different tongues, so that they couldn't communicate......they believed themselves to be separate from one another, because they could not communicate.....

But Buddha - at the Hamburger Stall - said, 'Make me one with everything'.

I think we need to think about, what sort of 'God' would make people feel separate.

Skin - Brown (or sometimes pinkish beige)
Blood - Red - Always

Very interesting question Penelope. Since, in my opinion, much of the Old Testament’s description and characterization of God is a metaphor of an irrational and terrifying universe where both natural phenomena as well as human behavior seemed incomprehensible, I wonder if the author was asking, instead of explaining, why are the Peoples of the Earth so different? Why do we go to war, commit genocide. etc. In a nutshell, why all the hate? Perhaps the story is trying to tell us that it has something to do with language, or the fact that we do not communicate enough.

Penelope wrote:Oh yeah, sorry, and Mr.Spock's blood was green too......I forgot. T

.

Which goes to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Tower of Babel was really a Starship......

Emporer wrote:

In a nutshell, why all the hate? Perhaps the story is trying to tell us that it has something to do with language, or the fact that we do not communicate enough.

It is our perception of one another which is affected when we feel divided, by language difference, or difference of skin colour, or the fact that we live on a land mass separated by a mass of water.

I find the story puzzling. The people were building a tower up to heaven where they imagined that 'God' dwelt. Would it be wrong to want to get close to God?

God does not live up in the sky, and they would have discovered their error eventually, one assumes.

Actually, language can cause a lot of misunderstanding and disagreement. We can listen to music and agree without speaking that it is beautiful. Science and mathematics are universally true. But when we begin to use words, and metaphore to express mere ideas, those words, even the ones we speak to ourselves in our own heads, are arbitrary (arbitrary??? is that the right word?). I rest my case.

It has often been said that history is written by the victors, and I believe the same can be said for apocrypha. So I back up a step from your question, Penelope, and ask what sort of God has a chosen people? In my estimation, the sort of God that is written by the chosen people.

Us and them. Us are chosen, them are not. People were burned at the stake and wars were fought during the reformation over such lofty questions as the meaning of the host, whole body or a dabble on forehead baptism, adult or infant baptism, and predestination (one of my favorite concepts) or not--and these folks often spoke the same language.

If we could all realize the arbitrary and slippery nature of our words, indeed our thoughts, perhaps we would not be so ready to draw our swords.

You mentioned the universal truth of science and mathematics. Both are fields that have considerable international cooperation. Why? I believe that both are fields that attempt to discover the truth, whereas religion and politics attempt to prove that WE (that is US) are right, or chosen, or somehow more wonderful, than THEM.

Interesting thread, thanks.

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

11:1 The whole earth 1 had a common language and a common vocabulary. 2 11:2 When the people 3 moved eastward, 4 they found a plain in Shinar 5 and settled there. 11:3 Then they said to one another, 6 “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” 7 (They had brick instead of stone and tar 8 instead of mortar.) 9 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens 10 so that 11 we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise 12 we will be scattered 13 across the face of the entire earth.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan:

He taught that blind adherence to any book rendered any religion void of spirit.

I was attempting to use my feeble intellect to discover what is the underlying message in the story of the Tower of Babel.

I am wondering if the message is that there is no message.