Hey there peeps. I am enjoying this process and am getting some good feedback here and there. The last 2 posts have gotten about 25 views each which I am completely cool with. I am hoping to get people from all sides of the faith issue viewing and commenting. If you think I am totally wrong please tell me.... I want discussion. I, obviously, want that discussion to be intelligent discussion and I know a good amount of devout Christian who I respect immensely that I am really hoping to hear from. I also really love the stories of the Bible.... I, for the most part, don't believe them to be true...at least not the Old Testament but I still enjoy them. The New Testament is much harder for me to discount. Once I am done with Genesis I am going to switch to a New Testament book and some thoughts in general that I have about Jesus, the resurrection, and the actions of the Apostles. Let's get into the Tower of Babylon.
Ok...I had forgotten exactly how this very short story played out. I had always heard that the arrogant men had wanted to build a tower to Heaven and that they actually thought they could reach Heaven. I don't read that in Genesis 11:1-9 at all. It essentially says that the people had started firing bricks and they were using these bricks to build a city and in that city they were building a tower to reach the sky....or the heavens. Whether the Bible says the sky or the heavens is a matter of which bible you read. My Bible said the sky so I looked up other translations of the same passage and they say that they were trying to build a tower that reached to the heavens. When someone says they want to soar into the heavens it doesn't feel to me like they are saying they want to get to heaven. It is a figure of speech....but this is now and that was then so who knows if I am misinterpreting here. This doesn't sound like anything but people building to the best of their ability and then God saying that a society as advanced as this must be stopped. How many cities have a tall building or tower now? But when the Lord came down (why does the Bible always say that God came down or that He sent angels to check on something???) to look over the city and saw what the men were building He said, "If, as one people having the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come let Us go down there and confuse their language so that they will not be able to understand each other's speech." Whoa........whoa.........whoa........ let's hold the phone for a minute. These primitive tent dwellers are building a brick city and they must be stopped? We are in deep trouble my friends!! I live in a small little nothing town called New Castle, IN. If I travel to the fabulous downtown area with it's magnificent shops and....well, if you live here you know what I am saying. We do have a court house made of brick even in this little nothing town. I wonder if the people who built this ran into any trouble when they were building it. If I drive to the big city of Indianapolis then my small town self stares in amazement at what has been created there. The canal.....Circle Center Mall....The Red Garter.... I have never been to New York city but I am imagining that it might just put ancient Babylon to shame. What I am saying here is that I completely believe this to be another fable. In my last post, I said that some kid probably asked his father how the world was created. I can imagine this same kid coming up to dear, old Dad and saying, "I have been thinking dude..... if we all came from those Adam and Eve peeps you told me about then why do the people from other places speak a different language than we do? We would all speak the same language Adam and Eve passed down to us." Then the father was like.... "Why are you thinking so much when you are supposed to be planting? That is probably why we thought we were growing wheat last year and we ended up with all of those melons. Wheat stores well, boy!! Melon's don't!!! Concentrate!!". But then the father knows his kid so he thinks about it for a few days and when the kid brings it up again the father is ready with this story. I am not at all saying it happened like that.... I have no clue. I simply cannot believe that the story is true. It feels like a fable created to explain why we would have different languages if we came from one common ancestor and could all speak before we were dispersed over the earth.
Another reoccurring issue I keep seeing is God referring to Himself as "Us". The first few times I saw it I just decided to let it go. I didn't think it was a big enough issue to take up....and I really still feel the same. It just confuses me and sets my mind in motion. I looked this issue up on a few web sites and read in some of my other books about it. It seems that there is nothing conclusive here about why the plural is used. Some say this is the Holy Trinity being referred to....obviously people of the Jewish faith discount that. Some say God was talking to his angels. Could there have been some polytheism here? I have no clue but this is just one of those little things that so makes me want to have a time machine. I am trying to let this one go though as there are far bigger fish to fry. I guess my take would have to be in the Holy Trinity direction. It does sound very Golem from The Lord of the Rings though.
Ok... just one more. I am almost hesitant to start on the story of Abram after going on about the Tower of Babylon so long. Abram, who will later be called Abraham, is an interesting dude. There is an awesome story here surrounding him. I will probably go several posts about him because his story is so cool. Ok....first off, in Genesis 12:3 it says that God will bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse him. These kind of things always trouble me. It is like we have a totally different concept of God now than they had in Biblical times..... and Biblical times are when God was most actively speaking to man, right? God essentially tells Abram, "I got your back, Homie. If someone gives you any crap, I will jump them and they will regret that mess!" That isn't a direct quote of course....hahaha It is our concept that God is the heavenly father to all. It would be like me having a big family and saying to my one son, "I like you a whole lot better than the rest of them. Tell me who is cool to you and they will get rewards. Tell me who treats you crummy and I will lock them in the basement." Once again the Bible seems to me stories to tell the Jewish people that God loves them more than all others. If things are bad now, remember that those who keep you down are enraging God and one day all will be as it should be with the descendants of Abraham taking their rightful place as God's favored people.
Dang....I so wanted to get into Genesis 12:10 when Abram goes to Egypt but this is getting a bit long so I will save that for next time. If you have any comments.....positive, negative, or whatever I welcome them. I am in no way trying to show Christian people that they are completely wrong. I do not want to convince even one person to my way of thinking. I am just trying to get honest dialog going between people from all sides of this issue. People should be able to talk about this issue without becoming angry so long as everyone is cool. We all have opinions and we all have bias'. I will completely admit that after all of these years searching I am coming at this from a viewpoint of the Bible not being the word of God.....and if I come to a belief that it is, I will have to change a whole lot about myself that I don't necessarily want to change. I have a horribly dirty sense of humor......I am not married and do not want to wait until I get married to have some "quality time".
; ) But..... if I can convince my head that the Bible is true then denying myself dirty jokes and pre-marital relations would be worth the rewards.
Later dudes and dudettes.
