God reigns in sorrow

"Hammurabi's children made their house of slavery's bricks, imprimatured by some mad priest's imagined good. The good is gone; the priest stamps on...." (George Delury)

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11.1	And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2	And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3	And 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.
4	And 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.
5	And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6	And 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.
7	Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8	So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9	Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

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I THINK the standard interpretation of this story gets it all wrong, sort of like poor Oedipus

The guild of master builders (structural engineers) decides to undertake a project to show off their trade skill. In 21st century terms, they want to become famous for their work. They want to build a masterwork. They are like a 20th century radio station which broadcasts its call letters to the ether. In the 20th Century, especially before television, there were a few special radio stations whcih, all night, had specific legal right to exclusive use of their broadcast frequency ovet the whole continental United States until, in th morning, local stations could come on air again: "Clearcast" stations. The master builders at Babel wanted to open a clearcast broadcast channel. Of course, they epected to get some good publicity out of it.

Their purpose was to politically unite all humanity, so that all persons would live in harmony, all over the earth.^[2] And also note: They chose to build the tower theselves, with their own hands, not hiring a hoard of wage laborers or requisitioning an army of conscripts (or slaves) to do it for them while they would sit back in their La-Z-Boy Recliners and drink three-martini lunches all day watching them sweat and some even die by collapsing from exhaustion and falling to their death off the scaffolding, or other miscellaneous occupational mishaps.

What they might have done had they finished the project? We cannot know, because creative achievement, unlike rote pedagogical exercises in a Peter Ramus school, cannot be described before it happens (pre-dicted) nor toiled to order.^[3] And they may even have found unanticipated faults in the tower which would need to be fixed (See William Lemessurier and th New York CiriCorp building, a story well documented on the Internet). Maybe they would have gone on to invent quantum physics and RNA vaccines. Excelsior!

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What rational and reasonable creature could find fault with this? Apparently the Abrahamic Deity Creator did. What could His problem have been? Maybe He was afraid they would threaten His reaign in Heaven? That is absurd on two counts, first that the master builders never gave any hint of wanting to overthow the Deity's regime, and second, of course, they were only mortal men and He was Omnipotent, so if they had tried that foolish idea, even had they disposed over thermonuclear weapons, He could have crushed them like if you step on an ant on the sidewalk.

I go for mean-spirited: He didn't like them getting "uppity": Who did the master builders at Babel think they were to want to make a name for themselves,like He had? After all, He had told everybody to not take His name in vain (Why should an Omnipotent Deity care about what mere mortals say about Him?). For whatever reason or lack of same, He scrambled all their minds and put them in their place.^[1] Hummph!

Here we see God, sitting on His throne in Heaven like the Sun King Louis XIV, surrounded by courtiers dancing all around Him endlessly repeating His praises, probably some of them hoping for some benefit, and others, more simpleminded folk, just because such people are worshipful and in awe of their betters.

Might God get tired of being toadied up to be a bunch of Yes-men (Yes-women, Yes-others) all the time, telling Him how great He is when He already knew that? He finds Himself getting bored on His throne with nobody to talk to, because no matter what he might say or do, like ordering Partiarch Abrahan to murder an innocent civilian (his own son, Isaac!) or tormenting righteous man Job to see if he could get him to curse Him, here are all these toadies, "the elect", praising Him just because He's Him. You can't discuss anything with or learn anything from people who always mindlessly (or cynically) parrot to you that you are always right, "just because". Enough already! Maybe it's lonely at the top.

Had God respected the master builders at Babel and encouraged their industry, He would have intelligent interlocutors, to learn from and enjoy their honesst, thoughtful companionshiip. It's too late now, so, all alone up there amid the endless mass demonstration of people who either really idolize Him or pretend to:

God reigns in sorrow.

He reaped what he sowed. He got what He asked for. He made His bed; and now He lies in it, forever. Serves Him right, for having messed with the minds of the master builders (structural engineers) at Babel.

And down here on earth? Go back to the top of this page and THINK abou the epigraph: here. End of story. Damn God.^[4]