A Political Explanation for Babel

The story of Babel in the Bible used to confuse me. I didn’t understand what was going on that was so bad and I never understood why God did what he did. I never found the explanation that God realized that if men were to be united in such a powerful way, they would be united in evil, a plausible explanation. Whether we are united in evil or divided in evil, we’re evil nonetheless, so destroying Babel would be inconsequential. But wrapping up my course in Political philosophy, I think such an explanation is plausible now. Having a one world government is scary to us now. Why? Because it so often leads to tyranny. We ought to have, like we do in the US, a separation of powers. “Ambition counteracts ambition”, “if men were angels” , etc. Because human nature is corrupted, we cannot centralize it. If it is divided, peace can be achieved. That is why God divided the people. Application: the story of Babel shows us that God favors a government that has a separation of powers, and opposes tyranny (and probably the UN! Ha!)

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