I decided that It was time again to read the bible through,because I haven't read it through since my teens.And in my opinion if your going to be an atheist you really need to have a good knowledge of the religions and gods you are disbelieving,to truly understand why you choose not to believe.
So I'm reading through genesis and come to the tower of babble section.Now I know this story from my childhood,but never really understood what was really going on and how seriously screwed up this particular myth really is.
Basically mankind speaks one language everyone can communicate no problem,nothing lost in translation.So they decide one day,that man should come together and build a great tower,one so great that it reaches the heavens.It will be an amazing accomplishment that will unite all of mankind,a place where humans can come and see that we as a people can accomplish great things when there is peace and we work together.The text states nothing about discrimination based on color,gender,beliefs or anything,just humans united to accomplish a task far greater than any ONE person could.It's a beautiful concept and one that this world should strive,NEEDS to strive for if we as the inhabitance of this world plan to ever survive extinction.
Now god finds out about this and thinks Oh my,Oh my this will never do.Everyone speaks one language,they all seem to get along,they are united as one and because of this they can accomplish anything they put their minds to.Now I'm injecting my own theory here but I'm pretty sure the underlying point is that HUMANS WOULD NO LONGER NEED GOD!!
So what does this egomaniacal tyrant do?He goes down and makes everyone speak a different language!Not only destroying any chance of the people ever finishing the greatest feat humankind has ever conceived up to this point,but effectively separating and alienating people from one another for all time.And because of this separation people segregate themselves to their own kind,and because the peoples of this world are now segregated they naturally develop their own customs traditions and way of understanding things.and in short because of the inevitable lack of understanding in other cultures or thinking that their way is right and others wrong,
we have wars,genocide and an entire planet that barely gets along.
Now as I've stated this is just a myth,but this myth is part of a belief system that
millions of people follow.One that supposedly teaches love and peace tolerance,but how that can that be when the god they worship is clearly afraid of these things.Because if humankind were to truly achieve worldwide love,peace and tolerance,god would then be rendered obsolete,there would be no more need for him.
Can we as species really continue to follow any belief system that at it's very core promotes the separation,segregation and alienation and hate of each other because it's god is afraid that we won't need him anymore?As an atheist I do not believe that any god exists and all of the holy texts are nothing more than mythology with a bit of history thrown in to give it that flavor of credibility.
But if you do believe and follow such gods,can you really get behind and mold your lives around such an obviously backwards,vengeful,childish,insecure god who ultimately wants to keep humankind from ever achieving it's goal of unity and world peace?Can you?...Really?
