Monday, March 30, 2009
Why do we speak different languages?
Okay well not much on that last post but that's all good. Can't expect everyone to be checkin it out right away. All go though the posts are still up and you guys can give us all your opinions on any of them so we're gonna move on to another concept that is straight out of the Bible that I don't really understand. The origin of speech in separate languages. Please let us know what you think, or the way that your religion explains it. Now the towel of Babel is the story from the bible that explains this phenomenon. It says the people of the earth were building a great tower that would be the greatest structure ever to be created and they were worshiping this man made structure rather than God the creater of Heaven and Earth and everything. So God gets pretty angry (rightfully so) and just makes everyone speak different languages so that the workers can't communicate, and the tower can't be built. Totally cool idea, but really doesn't seem legitamate to me now that I look at maps of the way that language has developed over time based on geography and separate isolated groups of people. Also if all languages were created by God at that time why then are there so many languages that are no longer spoken by the people of any nation such as Latin? Come on there are some really smart Christians out there and I want to hear some good arguments that can help me understand different ways of thinking about this issue. Come on Christian people you won't find a more open mind anywhere else.
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I think different languages evolved simply due to the isolation of tribes and civilizations during early times. And once they took hold, customs and traditions made people want to continue to speak their version of the language (still today). If God could make the tower builders begin speaking different languages, then surely he could control their thought. So why would he choose to use such a convoluted method (language) to influence their actions, instead of just directly making them do what he wanted?
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna have to agree with you man. Just the way that different language speaking groups are located around the globe shows me some clear evidence of an evolutionary process where languages changed and developed through use. I kind of like the argument that some christians use that the story is symbolic in which case these ideas could coexist because I can't understand a literal acceptance of this story as scientifically minded as I am. But I don't know if you're necessarily right just because your explaination makes more sense to me and you as logical thinkers. That's what I have had more trouble with. I guarantee there are some christians who the evolutionary story doesn't make sense to and that doesn't, I don't think, make them stupid as we are so often to just say, but rather that they think much differently than us. The story of Babel makes more sense to them and just by accepting it as what actually happened or as a symbolic representation of what happened, I feel as if in some ways this is every bit as accurate of a description. What do you think about the idea that even truth can be relative?
ReplyDeleteAfter thinking about it for a little while I don't like saying symbolic because that really still makes it seem like wrong. The thing is that it's really just a different way of thinking and anyone saying that it is symbolic story is still coming from a scientific point of view (yes even a whole lot of Christians). When I say symbolic that means it's trying to represent a different, in my case scientific, explaination of how this event happened. And it clearly isn't.
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