Comprehending the Pattern of Evil

After the flood, Noah and his family began to repopulate the earth. Noah's descendants became hunters and builders. A new technology emerged to provide more stable and suitable shelter. Brick and mortar became the means by which whole cities could be built: "They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves"" (Gen. 11:3b-4).

Immediately after the flood, Noah erected an altar, a structure on which to offer the sacrifice of praise and worship. The building project at Babel was something else. Again, it was a reach of pretended autonomy, a stretch for heaven, an attempt to rip God down from His throne that man might make for himself a name. The result of this effort? This primitive scientific undertaking was chaos. The language of man was confused and communication gave way to babbling.

This pattern has not changed. The greater the technology, the greater the chaos. The more sophisticated the tools, the more sophisticated the violence.