The Tower of Babel and the Struggle

to Be Like God
MARIA CINTORINO

History has a habit of repeating itself. No matter how advanced modern

man becomes the world still seems to make similar mistakes as in the past and
falls for the same lies. One of the lies which America continues to believe is the
notion that man can become God. This struggle to be like God is not unfamiliar
to man. After all, the serpent successfully convinces Adam and Eve that in
eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they will be like God,
knowing all. From the moment of the fall, the serpent repeats this lie from
generation to generation.
The serpent plants this desire to be like God in the hearts of the ancient
Sumerians, the earliest known civilization. To fulfill this desire, the Sumerians
intend to build a tower so high that it will reach the heavens. Though also
meant to serve as a symbol of their unity, the Sumerians reveal the true
purpose in commencing construction on the Tower of Babel. They proclaim:
“Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens,
and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face
of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:4) Their statement mimics the words which God
speaks in creating man: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen.
1:26). Hence, the Sumerians attempt to parody God’s creative act in building
the Tower of Babel.

The ambition and pride in thinking that they can build a tower so high that it
could reach the heavens does not bode well for the Sumerians. God, knowing
the intentions of their hearts realizes that the building of the tower reflects the
people’s desire to be like him. If successful, God notes that their desire will
only spread as “nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for
them” (Gen. 11:7). To chastise the Sumerians for their sin, God descends from
the heavens and confuses the tongues of the people.

Instead of achieving the unity and honor they desired, the people of Sumeria
no longer understand each other. The building of the tower comes to an abrupt
end as disorder and confusion ensue and each man scatters across the face of
the earth. The tower, intended to represent the unity and power of the
Sumerians, now symbolizes disunity and failure.

The mentality of the Sumerians reflects that of today’s society. Modern man,
like those who built the Tower of Babel, strives to be like God when he casts
God from the public sector and rejects as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI says
“faith in the Creator and [the] readiness to listen to the ‘language’ of creation.”
In so doing, Benedict reflects man “wants to become his own master, and
alone—always and exclusively—to determine everything that concerns him.”
The eventual consequences of such actions lead man to self-destruct.
When man asserts himself as creator he allows anything, moral or immoral, to
be permissible. Man, no longer abiding by the natural law, creates laws which
contradict the good of man and which treats his fellow neighbor as an
expendable utility. The life of an unborn child, no longer viewed as a blessing,
becomes an inconvenience for many. The baby’s very existence now calls for a
decision whether or not the baby should live or die. The sick and elderly have
become dispensable as the public have a “right” to legally masquerade murder
by euthanizing their loved ones to spare them from further pain and suffering.
If this was not enough, physician assisted suicide, now legal in five states,
provides the false comfort of having family members “die with dignity.”
Not only does modern man instruct God when and how life should enter and
leave this world, but also man dictates to the Creator about man’s very nature.
No longer deemed just “male” and female,” humanity can choose among sixty-
three genders to identify himself. The basic fundamental nature of man and
woman which God created and intended for each person now becomes the
result of a personal choice. Under the guise of “self-discovery,” the gender
crisis attempts to recreate man and dismisses the fundamental identity of each
and every person, as Ratzinger explains, “the creature of God, and by his grace,
his child and heir to eternal life.” When man compromises his very nature, he
jeopardizes his identity and the very image which God created him to be.
With this, the sacredness of the family, the nucleus of society, is undermined.
The promulgation and widespread acceptance of homosexual unions destructs
everything that is true, good and beautiful about the human person and the
family. Marriage according to the natural order has both the good of the couple
and the good of existence as its proper end for love and life are intrinsically
bound together. In recognizing homosexual unions man rejects God as the
author of marriage and dismisses marriage both on the natural and
supernatural level.

The result only breeds confusion and disorder. Man, forgetful of his identity,
truly believes that nothing is impossible for him to attain or re-create. At
World Youth Day in his meeting with the Polish bishops, Pope Francis quoted
a private conversation he had with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI saying: “We
live in an age of sin against God the Creator.” Francis continues: “He
[Benedict] is very perceptive. God created man and woman; God created the
world in a certain way … and we are doing the exact opposite.” Though this
quote was specifically referenced to the gender crisis, it rings true for all the
ways in which members of society lose their identity as creatures made in
God’s image and likeness and therefore attempt to act as God. The results of
these actions lead, as Benedict warns, to the “self-destruction of man himself,
and hence the destruction of God’s own work.”
By playing God through decisions of bestowing and taking life, re-creating
one’s identity through gender and by redefining marriage, the modern world
has sinned grievously against God the Creator. Man distorts the very nature by
which he was created. Pope Francis rightly reflects that “we are experiencing a
moment of the annihilation of man as the image of God.” By trying to be like
God, man has forgotten who he is and the very dignity he has been given by
virtue of the image and likeness by which he has been made. Instead of seeing
the world and himself as a beautiful mystery to be marveled at and which
displays God’s grandeur and wisdom, man tests God’s patience by over-
stepping the limits of his sovereignty of the earth given him in the Garden. His
search for emancipation from God as Creator only ends in man’s own
destruction.

Yet, throughout the years, humanity has not learned from his mistakes.
Modern man continually strives to recreate himself and the world around him.
He repeatedly listens to the serpent’s lies and becomes no different from the
Sumerians who thought that they too could be like God in building a tower
which would reach the heavens.

Tagged as Intellectual Pride, narcissism, Non Serviam, Tower of Babel