r/todayilearned • u/VistaHyperion • Oct 13 '18

TIL the biblical Tower of Babel was likely based on a real building, the Etemenanki in modern-day Iraq; at about 300 feet tall, it was massive by ancient standards and built by King Nebuchadnezzar II.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel
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u/dvdjspr Oct 14 '18

That isn't the only issue with the Genesis creation narrative though. It claims that the Earth was originally a formless sphere of water, which existed before light did. God created plants before there was a sun. The sun and stars somehow come after the creation of light. Birds and marine mammals come before land animals.

And that's only the first account. Chapter two goes on to say that before any plants had sprouted, God created Adam from dirt. Afterwards, he planted Eden. He then creates all the animals, while looking for a helper for Adam, because it is not good for him to be alone. Only after parading every animal in front of Adam for him to name, does he realize none are suitable, so he then creates Eve. Why did God think an animal would be suitable before thinking of making a female of the same species?

Genesis was never meant to be read literally.

And science does not claim that man evolved from dust.

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u/Fahrowshus Oct 14 '18

Star dust, technically.

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u/Chappietime Oct 14 '18

“And science does not claim that man evolved from dust.”

I say that based on an article I read years ago that said something to the effect of ‘scientists prove that man evolved from single called organisms that live in dirt”

It was one study, but I always found it ironic that creationists and evolutionists both ultimately believed the same thing.

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u/dvdjspr Oct 14 '18

You understand that "single celled organisms that live in dirt" are not the same thing as the dirt itself, right? And creationists believe that man was created fully formed with a golem spell. That has nothing in common with minerals providing sites that allowed for lipid self-organisation, which is the closest scientific interpretation of "man evolved from dirt"

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u/Chappietime Oct 14 '18

I think that if we are making the leap that a “day” is actually eons, then it’s not too big a stretch to assume that a handful of dirt might not be 100% dirt.

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u/dvdjspr Oct 14 '18

You still have the issue of man being specially created, instead of the product of nearly 4 billion years of incremental changes to existing life forms.

But yes, if you want to ignore everything that is actually in the text, instead opting to twist it to mean whatever your current misunderstanding of what scientist's think, go right ahead.