The Tower of Babel

[Minimalist]

The only flaw is trying to convince a dumbass like you that your fucking bible is a worthless piece of shit.  However, the opportunities to insult you and it simply cannot be passed up.  Call it a hobby.

I'M the one that talk's like a five year old?  

For that matter, imagine a jewish exile seeing Babylon for the first time.  Coming from a poverty-stricken shithole and suddenly being exposed to the grandeur of such a city?  The Ziggurat must have been awe-inspiring. 

The book of Genesis was written around 700 years before any Jewish exile stepped foot in Babylon....

No it wasn't, dumbass.  In fact, we have no record of any hebraic text prior to the Dead Sea Scrolls....which date to the second century BC.  The earliest texts of your so-called fucking bible are in Greek and date from the 3d century.

Seriously, Hugster.  Don't you know anything?

[Minimalist]

The story is etiological.
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It attempts to explain in terms which primitive humans could understand how things came to be.  In this instance, why do different people speak different languages.  Sadly, we still have primitive humans ( are you listening, Hugster?) who need such bullshit reassurances.

For that matter, imagine a jewish exile seeing Babylon for the first time.  Coming from a poverty-stricken shithole and suddenly being exposed to the grandeur of such a city?  The Ziggurat must have been awe-inspiring.  The ancient Greeks developed a similar myth of the minotaur and the labyrinth after seeing the palace at Knossos.  To a country bumpkin who lived in a mud hut it must have been mind-boggling.

Aside from the examples given on the website, the myth of sodom and gomorrah also fits into the pattern of etiological mythology:  "Grandpa, grandpa, what happened over THERE?!!"

Its all horseshit made up for gullible fools.  They are still with us, today.

I certainly agree that this is a major component to the origin of this story, and at the same time I still see elements of the tale geared toward the discouragement of free thought, organizing toward humanistic goals, and cooperating outside of religious control. I think the people of the cloth knew exactly what they were doing as they nudged the story along toward what eventually became the written version.

I always found this a particularly insightful comment from the very fine Israeli archaeologist, Israel Finkelstein.  I suspect the sodom/gomorrah tale was amended by Judahite writers to include this little aside.

[url=http://s4.photobucket.com/user/rschilla/media/research/Finkelstein_Ammon_Moab.jpg.html]

[Rhondazvous]

Evidence that the story of Babel is fiction can be realized due to the fact that we have made our way into space and to the moon.

Yes and we are discussing it as a work of fiction. All myths have something to say, as Joseph Conrad points out. But the Judeo/Christian myths tell of a god who hates humans. Here we dispel the myth that this god loves humans. We also dispel the myth that the bible is a reliable source of information, scientific, historical, spiritual or otherwise.

[Jenny A]

The book of Genesis was written around 700 years before any Jewish exile stepped foot in Babylon....

Most modern scholars would disagree with you there.  

"Scholars in the first half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that the Yahwist was produced in the monarchic period, specifically at the court of Solomon, and the Priestly work in the middle of the 5th century BC (the author was even identified as Ezra), but more recent thinking is that the Yahwist was written either just before or during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century, and the Priestly final edition was made late in the Exilic period or soon after."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Ge...Davies37-6

If you'd like to know why scholars think so check out this little article. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/...d-why-rjs/

[Angrboda]

 If the people of that time were so advanced they could build an inter-dimensional gate, then we'd see at least one culture with significantly advanced technology.  Those scientists would have had at least some knowledge of what they were doing.  That knowledge and technology would not have been easily lost -- at least not all of it.

Don't you know? Their technology was based on sticks, rope, and mud bricks. All traces of this society have faded to dust in time. That's why we can't find any evidence of it in the archaeological record!

[Huggy Bear]

 If the people of that time were so advanced they could build an inter-dimensional gate, then we'd see at least one culture with significantly advanced technology.  Those scientists would have had at least some knowledge of what they were doing.  That knowledge and technology would not have been easily lost -- at least not all of it.

Don't you know?  Their technology was based on sticks, rope, and mud bricks.  All traces of this society have faded to dust in time.  That's why we can't find any evidence of it in the archaeological record!

You mean evidence like the great pyramid?

[Angrboda]

Don't you know?  Their technology was based on sticks, rope, and mud bricks.  All traces of this society have faded to dust in time.  That's why we can't find any evidence of it in the archaeological record!

You mean evidence like the great pyramid?

Your idiocy knows no bounds. What do you think the great pyramid has to do with technology capable of creating an inter dimensional gateway?

[Minimalist]

I know where this is going.

Aliens.

[abaris]

Your idiocy knows no bounds.  What do you think the great pyramid has to do with technology capable of creating an inter dimensional gateway?

If you take your "knowledge" from something like Erik von Däniken's ramblings - everything.

I have my suspicions, since Huggy's first appearance here hinted at people being several centuries old and building some interdimensional portals. There are of course pyramid psychos and they actually did write - turds would be the word I'm looking for - but let's call them books.

[Homeless Nutter]

I heard ancient Egyptians built the pyramids, using alien technology, in order to sharpen razors. Have you noticed how cleanly shaven ancient Egyptians appear in their art? All those hairless torsos. All those fancy trimmed goaties. And not a cut - or a small piece of blood soaked toilet paper stuck to it - anywhere in sight. Coincidence? I think not...