# How Do Creationists Explain the Tower Of Babel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 18, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865 "2011-02-18T23:22:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/1 "2011-02-18T23:22:13Z")
Why Did God Destroy the Tower Of Babel, but not skyscrapers? After All, Bronze Age Technology cant reach any where near a 2 story building. And Why would God allow space shuttles? How Do Creationist explain them? ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/2 "2011-02-18T23:23:47Z")
God works in mysterious ways. Just like he doesn’t confront people who’ve killed their brothers or stop parents from killing their children after having been told by him to do so. ---
**Author:** ![raindog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/3 "2011-02-18T23:26:01Z")
What does Creationism have to do with the questions posed in the OP? ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/4 "2011-02-18T23:27:34Z")
because the intent behind building skyscrapers and the space shuttle is different ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/5 "2011-02-18T23:33:24Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > …Bronze Age Technology cant reach any where near a 2 story building… Is there a typo in here somewhere? I’m not arguing in favour of the Tower of Babel, but I’m pretty sure 2 storey buildings aren’t _that_ hard… ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/6 "2011-02-18T23:36:05Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Is there a typo in here somewhere? I’m not arguing in favour of the Tower of Babel, but I’m pretty sure 2 storey buildings aren’t _that_ hard… How would they have constructed the steel beams used to form the skeletons of the buildings? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/7 "2011-02-18T23:38:10Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > How would they have constructed the steel beams used to form the skeletons of the buildings? What?!? A 2 storey building can be constructed out of mud. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/8 "2011-02-18T23:42:48Z")
Riddle me this: Then why aren’t we using mud now? I mean I can look out the fucking window and see mud but there are still homeless people. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/9 "2011-02-18T23:47:27Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Riddle me this: Then why aren’t we using mud now? I mean I can look out the fucking window and see mud but there are still homeless people. Not a clue what your point is. Sorry. Are you properly understanding the (minor) point I’m trying to unravel here? My point is that it sounds as though the statement “Bronze Age Technology cant reach any where near a **2** story building” contains a typo (maybe it’s supposed to say 20?) - because 2 storey buildings CAN be constructed with Bronze Age technology, or pre-Bronze Age technology. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/10 "2011-02-18T23:49:24Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Not a clue what your point is. Sorry. Are you properly understanding the (minor) point I’m trying to unravel here?. He’s applying creationist logic to architecture. You’re being whooshed. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/11 "2011-02-18T23:52:06Z")
OK, assuming this whole thread isn’t a joke then (in which case it’s in the wrong forum), my original question stands: Is that a typo? Did the OP mean 20? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/12 "2011-02-18T23:56:16Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > OK, assuming this whole thread isn’t a joke then (in which case it’s in the wrong forum), my original question stands: Is that a typo? Did the OP mean 20? I’m assuming it’s a typo, since he said they couldn’t get “any where near” a two story building. Which would rule out one story buildings. Unless he’s assuming everyone lived in holes, he probably meant 20 or 200. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/13 "2011-02-18T23:57:31Z")
> [@raindog](#): > > What does Creationism have to do with the questions posed in the OP? Nothing directly, but many creationists try to take the whole of Genesis as a completely straightforwardly literal document, not just the first couple of chapters. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/14 "2011-02-19T00:10:12Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Nothing directly, but many creationists try to take the whole of Genesis as a completely straightforwardly literal document, not just the first couple of chapters. Exactly. The OP probably should have used “fundamentalist” rather than “creationist” to describe who he’s talking about, but they’re one in the same (one and the same?). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/15 "2011-02-19T00:18:04Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > Why Did God Destroy the Tower Of Babel, but not skyscrapers? After All, Bronze Age Technology cant reach any where near a 2 story building. And Why would God allow space shuttles? How Do Creationist explain them? Space shuttles have iron in them, and God has a problem with iron chariots. A JW who was visiting my grandmother in early 1968 (futilely I’m happy to report) saw me reading an E.E. Smith book and showed me a Bible verse saying that man can not go to the moon because Earth is for man and the heavens are for God. (LOE clearly doesn’t count for heaven.) I don’t know how they explained it, but it was the basis for the story I wrote for junior year of HS Creative writing. (and I got an A 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/16 "2011-02-19T01:31:19Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Exactly. The OP probably should have used “fundamentalist” rather than “creationist” to describe who he’s talking about, but they’re one in the same (one and the same?). One and the same. ---
**Author:** ![Heyoka13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Heyoka13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heyoka13)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/17 "2011-02-19T01:40:40Z")
A few minor points; the Tower of Babel was made of brick and slime. And God’s only reaction was to confound their language so that they could not understand one another. As far as Genesis records, the tower was left standing. Presumably, a future civilization leveled it into a chariot lot for a strip bazaar. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/18 "2011-02-19T01:50:34Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > Why Did God Destroy the Tower Of Babel, but not skyscrapers? After All, Bronze Age Technology cant reach any where near a 2 story building. And Why would God allow space shuttles? How Do Creationist explain them? Weird that no one has really answered the OP yet (maybe Post #4). Anyway, in case the OP actually wants an answer: God’s objection to the Tower of Babel was not that it was tall. If I recall, it had to do with man’s hubris and desire to be equal to God. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/19 "2011-02-19T03:00:16Z")
No need to rely on faulty memory. Here’s the entire story of the Tower of Babel, it’s short and sweet: > [@The Bible](#): > > Genesis 11 > 1And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. > 2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. > 3And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. > 4And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. > 5And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. > 6And 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. > 7Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. > 8So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. > 9Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all Or, if you prefer a more modern translation, here’s the NIV > [@The Bible](#): > > Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar\*\* and settled there. > 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” > > 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” > > 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. > a.Genesis 11:2 Or from the east; or in the east > b.Genesis 11:2 That is, Babylonia > c.Genesis 11:9 That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865/20 "2011-02-19T03:05:03Z")
As for the contention that Bronze Age people couldn’t build a two story building, well, I don’t know what to say. Maybe a few of these images might change his mind: [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/29/46769923_1e1f38d79c_b.jpg "Ziggurat at Ur") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmcfall/46769923/) [http://www.globetourguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/pyramids\_of\_giza\_egypt5b15d.jpg](http://www.globetourguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/pyramids_of_giza_egypt5b15d.jpg) [![](http://www.whatmexico.com/phototour/img/chichen-itza-ruins.jpg) ](http://www.whatmexico.com/phototour/img/chichen-itza-ruins.jpg) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-the-tower-of-babel/571865.md?page=2)