Re: Surely the Universal Translator would get God a bit miff
Cary, I don't hate Christians or Jews. I just saw an odd relationship between a literal interpretation of the bible and Star Trek lore. So I'm asking a question. Kirk asked god a question once and I think he got shot for his curiosity. Is that the kind of god we're dealing with? Personally, I think it is.
The story of Babel is about hubris. Man got presumptuous and God punished us, just the same as he did to Satan ("Why must I serve, when these hands can preform miracles just as great as his?" (Milton, terribly paraphrased.)) when he tried to take the old mans seat because he got bored of being suck up toady(See Peter Cook in Bedazzeled(1967.).). that's what God did in the old testament, talked loud and carried a big stick, and we were such (*&^'s we probably needed it since we were a savage child race stealing, murdering and fornicating all over the place.
Santaman, humanity was cursed. Witches and wizard get pissy when their curses are lifted. God doubly so. I don't even want to consider the implications if one of us sneaks back over the fence into Eden, what God would do to the rest of us then? God didn't just give every tribe or every nation their own unique language, nothing so fair and imitable as that, but every single person on the planet was given their own language ununderstable to anyone else, isloating the species inside a hundred million intense bubbles of lonliness, just like in the DS9 episode "Babel", or the JLA arc by Waid "Babel" where the Demon made the written word unintelligible in hopes to radically depopulate the planet through humourous misadventure.
God had to accept that man would eventually gravitate towards the ability to communicate again, unless it was a child systematically kicking over the same rebuilt anthills syndrome... But really the universal Translator must be going to far, reversing the curse completely that for appearances sake through a mathematic medium, everyone was speaking the same language and therefore challenging Gods preeminence, and if there's one thing about god I have noticed in the old testament, it is that he is petty, angry and vengeful. We're living under his roof and disrespecting his rules.
Remember when your parents told you not to do things? Told you not to do stuff? And wailed on you if you dared do otherwise than they insisted was in your best interest? The bible is a series of morality fables probably but such fun can be had from the literal interpretation of the more outlandish incidents. My apologies.
Ancient, you seem to have been told a more friendly version of the Tower of Babel than I have ever run across. So I checked up on wikipedia to make sure I wasn't blowing too much smoke out my ass. For the most part they agree with the bitter and angry interpretation I grew up with but here's the point that really fracks with your supposition... According to the book of Jubilees, the Tower of Babel was 2 and a half kilometers tall... Though there are more conservative estimates, that remains the literal facts delivered by the bible. So, God totally unthreatened, he waited till the Tower was 5 times the height of the Empire State Building till he considering mankind was wasting it's time with busy work?
The Klingon's murdered their gods. Other mortals have had just as much luck whacking into other pantheon's fully locked and loaded. Please nte how successful the saint of Killers was in Preacher. But surely the JeudoChristian God had nothing to be concerned about? We can't have been a threat, not now, and not then... So, why with the smacking and cursing? And if he'll do all that for an imagined slight... What about if we really are impudent and disrespectful?
I think the universal translator is baiting god. He set down a pecking order and made the issue clear. No unity, no collaboration, no co-operation, don't even think about trying to seem cooler then he is, so don't eat the bloody apple and don't unify the languages because... He's nervous with an itchy trigger finger to employ curses and banishments when he's being crowded by the new kids on the block looking for fresh fields.
So that's what I rationally believe God would think on the Subject. But it's a question about the Church and the faithful, who do not eat pork ever, or only eat Fish on fridays, who will not tolerated abortion or contraception or stemcell research or homosexuality.
They do what their god says.
God didn't just say, "You will not speak the same language" he didn't even make it a sin to think about it, like with coveting your nieghbours wife on top of already telling you you're not allowed to sleep with her like you can't be trusted to even think about stuff you're not allowed to do... God made it physically impossible like genetically removing a limb or appendage that will never grow back and your progeny will never exhibit. Is it really wise to mess around with someone this powerful with such intense issues on the subject?
