Is the Fall of the Tower of Babel a Metaphor for the Demise of a Very High Civilization?
Steve Bass
July 05, 2009
Originally published in the Journal of Frontier Science www.frontierscience.us/article161.html
It is generally a good rule of thumb that a little truth is contained in a lie. The same holds true for legends and mythology, which tend to incorporate factual occurrences surrounded by embellishment and fact altered to the point of incredulity.
When I study Ufology, I tend to compare and contrast it with Biblical teachings. Being Mormon in faith, I have a strong belief in the Word of God as taught in the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon.
Biblical history was typically authored many years, sometimes centuries after the fact. Even so, almost on a yearly basis, an archaeologist will discover an artifact or ancient ruin or dwelling that corroborates an account from Biblical texts. For example, outside of the Bible, there was not any evidence that King David of the Israelites actually existed. Then, in July of 1993, archaeologists led by Professor Avraham Biran found a piece of basalt rock in the city of Tel Dan in the northern parts of Galilee, on which was inscribed the words "Beit David", which translates "Dynasty of David".
Many of us were taught the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as children, about how God rained destruction onto the cities with fire and brimstone. Archaeologists believe that they have found the ancient sites of the cities off the southwest coast of the Dead Sea, complete with ash and evident brimstone!
The story of the Tower of Babel always confused me. The story goes that the people of the city of Babel wanted to build an incredible city with a huge tower, so large that it touched the heavens! This so angered Heavenly Father that He destroyed the tower and confounded everyone´s language.
The thought of actually offending God by building a tower seemed incredible, especially when you consider the heresies of today.
I suspect that the Tower of Babel is analogous to the birth and growth of an advanced culture, a Very High Civilization. A Very High Civilization is a scientific term for a civilization that has reached an advanced level of technological and social sophistication.
Discoveries of large areas of fused green glass found by archaeologists digging in the Egyptian desert near Libya and Sudan led to great consternation and confusion with its implications.
When American scientists first tested the atomic bomb in New Mexico in the closing hours of World War II, they found that the intense heat had turned the sand in the blast crater to a green-colored glass. This incredible evidence in the Egyptian desert, the "Libyan Desert Glass", points to the use of nuclear weapons! More incredibly, the level of its excavation dates the phenomenon to at least 10,000 years ago!
Marvels on the scale of the Great Pyramid of Giza continue to confound attempts at dating and fascinate engineers with the complexity, precision, and ingenuity manifested in its design and construction. Concrete blocks of tens and hundreds of tons were lifted and placed precisely in exact locations, leaving seams that even a thin sheet of paper could not be passed between.
Research by former CBS science advisor and engineer Richard Hoagland into alleged unnatural artifacts on the Earth´s Moon and on Mars all seem to substantiate the premise that, once long ago, another intelligent, sophisticated, and advanced race existed on Earth or within the boundaries of its Solar System. [1]
As the analogy unfolds, the Tower/civilization grew to such heights that God felt it was time to bring about the destruction of the Tower/civilization and scatter the builders/people to the far corners of the (then) known world. (Could the known world actually have encompassed this Solar System, or the Universe as a whole?)
The once monolingual builders/people were additionally struck with differing languages (the confounding of tongues), thus dividing them into separate civilizations.
An interesting comparison can be made to the people of the United States of America. Americans have allowed themselves to some degree to be divided into separate cultures, each with its own dialect and slang terminology. These cultures have been further diversified by style of dress, varying levels of behavior and decorum, outlooks on the future, and religious or spiritual beliefs.
Many primitive cultures have legends of a great, advanced civilization that faced a great cataclysm, the destruction of which spread its technologies and beliefs around the world, carried by its few survivors. Known by such names as Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu, should the name "Babel" be added to its ranks?
Imagine what that civilization must have been like!
If the civilization that called Earth home so many millennia ago was what we today refer to as "alien", but were actually "Ancient Earthlings", then the imagination can only run wild about what it was like!
If that civilization were indeed Human, it would likely be so in basic physiology and body structural appearance only. Clothing may well have evolved from the early ancestors wearing of animal skins, much like our present civilization, but will have followed a different progression of styles designed from unique points of view born of distinctive life experiences and tastes, and with differing levels of modesty.
Not only would clothing appear different and possibly be manufactured from different materials, but trends in hair styles would evolve separately, as well.
Mannerisms would be different, evolving from singly unique lifestyles.
While it may be human nature to compete, contests of brain and/or brawn would be different, possibly more involved with one over the other.
Style of habitat design and construction would likely have been extraordinary, possibly driving deep underground instead of towering into the air.
This civilization could likely have expanded across the Solar System, accounting for building debris and machinery depicted on official NASA pictures and analyzed by the likes of Richard Hoagland and Mike Bara.[2] Monuments possibly still stand on the Moon and on Mars, depicting and hinting at the memory of its prehistoric builders.
It would be ultimately fascinating to get a glimpse at such a civilization as this; one that has all but disappeared from the face of this planet, but maybe not from the Solar System. How did their destruction and fall come to be? Is this to be the same fate to befall OUR civilization?
References
1] Hoagland, Richard Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA, Feral House; 1 edition (October 16, 2007).
2] Ibid.
It is generally a good rule of thumb that a little truth is contained in a lie. The same holds true for legends and mythology, which tend to incorporate factual occurrences surrounded by embellishment and fact altered to the point of incredulity.
When I study Ufology, I tend to compare and contrast it with Biblical teachings. Being Mormon in faith, I have a strong belief in the Word of God as taught in the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon.
Biblical history was typically authored many years, sometimes centuries after the fact. Even so, almost on a yearly basis, an archaeologist will discover an artifact or ancient ruin or dwelling that corroborates an account from Biblical texts. For example, outside of the Bible, there was not any evidence that King David of the Israelites actually existed. Then, in July of 1993, archaeologists led by Professor Avraham Biran found a piece of basalt rock in the city of Tel Dan in the northern parts of Galilee, on which was inscribed the words "Beit David", which translates "Dynasty of David".
Many of us were taught the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as children, about how God rained destruction onto the cities with fire and brimstone. Archaeologists believe that they have found the ancient sites of the cities off the southwest coast of the Dead Sea, complete with ash and evident brimstone!
The story of the Tower of Babel always confused me. The story goes that the people of the city of Babel wanted to build an incredible city with a huge tower, so large that it touched the heavens! This so angered Heavenly Father that He destroyed the tower and confounded everyone´s language.
The thought of actually offending God by building a tower seemed incredible, especially when you consider the heresies of today.
I suspect that the Tower of Babel is analogous to the birth and growth of an advanced culture, a Very High Civilization. A Very High Civilization is a scientific term for a civilization that has reached an advanced level of technological and social sophistication.
Discoveries of large areas of fused green glass found by archaeologists digging in the Egyptian desert near Libya and Sudan led to great consternation and confusion with its implications.
When American scientists first tested the atomic bomb in New Mexico in the closing hours of World War II, they found that the intense heat had turned the sand in the blast crater to a green-colored glass. This incredible evidence in the Egyptian desert, the "Libyan Desert Glass", points to the use of nuclear weapons! More incredibly, the level of its excavation dates the phenomenon to at least 10,000 years ago!
Marvels on the scale of the Great Pyramid of Giza continue to confound attempts at dating and fascinate engineers with the complexity, precision, and ingenuity manifested in its design and construction. Concrete blocks of tens and hundreds of tons were lifted and placed precisely in exact locations, leaving seams that even a thin sheet of paper could not be passed between.
Research by former CBS science advisor and engineer Richard Hoagland into alleged unnatural artifacts on the Earth´s Moon and on Mars all seem to substantiate the premise that, once long ago, another intelligent, sophisticated, and advanced race existed on Earth or within the boundaries of its Solar System. [1]
As the analogy unfolds, the Tower/civilization grew to such heights that God felt it was time to bring about the destruction of the Tower/civilization and scatter the builders/people to the far corners of the (then) known world. (Could the known world actually have encompassed this Solar System, or the Universe as a whole?)
The once monolingual builders/people were additionally struck with differing languages (the confounding of tongues), thus dividing them into separate civilizations.
An interesting comparison can be made to the people of the United States of America. Americans have allowed themselves to some degree to be divided into separate cultures, each with its own dialect and slang terminology. These cultures have been further diversified by style of dress, varying levels of behavior and decorum, outlooks on the future, and religious or spiritual beliefs.
Many primitive cultures have legends of a great, advanced civilization that faced a great cataclysm, the destruction of which spread its technologies and beliefs around the world, carried by its few survivors. Known by such names as Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu, should the name "Babel" be added to its ranks?
Imagine what that civilization must have been like!
If the civilization that called Earth home so many millennia ago was what we today refer to as "alien", but were actually "Ancient Earthlings", then the imagination can only run wild about what it was like!
If that civilization were indeed Human, it would likely be so in basic physiology and body structural appearance only. Clothing may well have evolved from the early ancestors wearing of animal skins, much like our present civilization, but will have followed a different progression of styles designed from unique points of view born of distinctive life experiences and tastes, and with differing levels of modesty.
Not only would clothing appear different and possibly be manufactured from different materials, but trends in hair styles would evolve separately, as well.
Mannerisms would be different, evolving from singly unique lifestyles.
While it may be human nature to compete, contests of brain and/or brawn would be different, possibly more involved with one over the other.
Style of habitat design and construction would likely have been extraordinary, possibly driving deep underground instead of towering into the air.
This civilization could likely have expanded across the Solar System, accounting for building debris and machinery depicted on official NASA pictures and analyzed by the likes of Richard Hoagland and Mike Bara.[2] Monuments possibly still stand on the Moon and on Mars, depicting and hinting at the memory of its prehistoric builders.
It would be ultimately fascinating to get a glimpse at such a civilization as this; one that has all but disappeared from the face of this planet, but maybe not from the Solar System. How did their destruction and fall come to be? Is this to be the same fate to befall OUR civilization?
References
1] Hoagland, Richard Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA, Feral House; 1 edition (October 16, 2007).
2] Ibid.