Table of Contents
Emilio Ortiz talks with Paul A. Wallis about the Bible, contact and ancient visitors. One part of the talk is about the Tower of Babel. In the usual telling, God punishes people for a tower that is too tall and splits their language. Wallis says this reading is not complete. To him, Babel was a “stargate”, a portal or technology for fast access to outer space. The word Babel means “gateway of the power” or “power gate”. The tower was meant to reach the heavens, and he reads the heavens as space. He compares the story with the Sumerian Enuma Elish, where advanced beings and their technology play the main role. In his view, other powerful beings shut the project down by force, much like nations today fight over military power. The loss of one language was an attack on how people communicate, and a society fell apart. He asks what it means to worship a god who acts like this. He separates the idea of God from these violent acts and gives them to non-human beings. He also says these events left a deep scar on humanity that still shows in stories all over the world.
Key points
- Paul A. Wallis says Babel means “gateway of the power” or “power gate”.
- He reads the tower as a stargate, a technology for fast access to space.
- He compares the story with the Sumerian Enuma Elish.
- In his view, other powerful beings shut the project down by force.
- He separates God from these violent acts and gives them to non-human beings.
I read the verses themselves on Genesis 11 – Tower of Babel.
Video by Emilio Ortiz. Watch on YouTube.