Our Tower of Babel

You have to work at it not to notice similarities between the postmodern world and that very old, Old Testament story about the Tower of Babel. (Gen. 11:1-9) Like those ancient builders, we have been trying for several centuries now to raise a purely human edifice in Western nations, with no reference – no real need, we think – for God.

It can’t be done, of course, though it can seem to, temporarily. (Country music’s Gospel truth: “Ain’t it funny how fallin’ seems like flying/ For a little while.”) God is the absolute foundation and absolute truth about all things, including human nature. As the American Founders knew, if human dignity doesn’t come from the Creator, where will it come from? Ignoring that truth, like all denials of reality, cannot help but end, sooner or later, in disaster.

How do we know when the collapse has happened? In the Bible, not only does the tower crumble, but the builders fall into deep conflict. Their speech grows confused, so that they cannot understand one another any longer. Game of Thrones is only half the story – and in some ways not the worst.

The Bible is not merely saying that in some far distant time, people took a wrong turn and afterward fought over differences. They were capable of that since Cain and Abel. The Babel account probes much deeper: to the human capacity for mutually intelligible speech, the thing that distinguishes us from all other beings because it makes it possible that we can come to know truth.

Click here to read the rest of Dr. Royal’s column at The Catholic Thing . . .