An Unfounded Conjecture

Dear Philosophia,

Recall the curious event of Genesis 11:1-9.

1 And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech.
2 And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it.
3 And each one said to his neighbour: Come, let us make brick, and bake them of stones, and slime instead of mortar.
4 And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building.
6 And he said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed.
7 Come ye, therefore, let us go down, and there may not understand one another's speech.
8 And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city.
9 And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confounded: and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries.

Because it is fun to conjecture, I have concocted me a conjecture upon the manner in which God did thwart the city planners of Sennaar:

I suggest that He may well have afflicted them with experts. See also.

That is all.

an obscure PhD student


1) The Vulga Glossa has
Venite: Timebant iterum diluvium; ideo auctore Nemrod voluerunt sibi constituere turrem, in qua diluvium non timerent. Stulta et impia audacia, unde secuta vindicta est et linguarum divisio. ISID. in Gen. Turris, mundi superbia, vel haereticorum dogmata, etc., usque ad unitas confessionis et fidei.
2) The same translation has, for Gen 2:7 "And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth." It suggests that, not only are the builders impious in their project (trying to outsmart God), but they are mimicking God's creation of Man, who stands tall for God in the Garden, with the tower that would stand tall for these Men in Mesopotamia.