Why did God make people speak different languages?

[Usher55]

Genesis 11:3-7

“Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.'”

In the beginning, according to the New Testament of the Bible, the entire world that God had made all spoke the same language. In the region of Shinar, these people got the bright idea to create a tower that reaches the Heavens. And what did God do? Make a huge fuss about the plan and make everyone speak different languages. Outside of being an interesting explanation for regional differences around the world, this just checks out as another move from typical God, punishing people for getting too greedy.

[jshm2]

You're too simple minded, and easily confused.

The purpose of the "tower" was to "affront God". God just pissed on their picnic by hitting them where it hurt.

Had God just knocked the tower down, they would have called it a "natural disaster" and rebuilt. By destroying the very fabric of society by changing their languages, they could neither build, communicate or continue to live as they did.

It is the ultimate shame of any society to collapse to such an extent.

The allegory being, "fuck around with God, and there will be nothing left of you or your legacy".

[Usher55]

God pissed on their picnic? Typical God, I knew it. Now it's my turn to tell you to lay of the crack, "kiddo", and go smoke your pipe somewhere else. But I'm not gonna do that. Your God does hit the toilet regularly.
Read other replies, they might be of help to you as to why people actually speak different languages.

[Lliam]

Or maybe people living in different localities all around the world (and not just in Mesopotamia), developed their own languages by necessity, and those languages continued to evolve. Cultures developed and evolved along the same lines.

People around the world were fairly isolated, with no means to communicate other than to speak in person, and only able to travel by, for the most part, walking. Many people lived their entire lives in the village they were born in.

So after tens of thousands of years, naturally there were thousands of languages and dialects.

That's a cute story from the Bible, though. What's funny is, it makes God sound like a madman. He didn't want people building a tower? His solution was to make everybody speak different languages? Oh well, at least he didn't strike them all down, which he tended to do from time to time.

[XHopelessRomanticX]

After the Flood, God commanded humanity to "increase in number and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1). Humanity decided to do the exact opposite.

In response, God confused the languages of humanity so that they could no longer communicate with each other (Genesis 11:7). The result was that people congregated with other people who spoke the same language, and then went together and settled in other parts of the world (Genesis 11:8-9). God confused the languages at the Tower of Babel to enforce His command for humanity to spread throughout the entire world.

[jennifer_bloom]

I think it means God wants to rule over the world and not have human kings rule over the world. We’ve seen how much damage guys like Hitler and Genghis Khan have caused by dominating over collective nations, the division of populations protects minority groups and prevents under valued individuals from being assassinated and murdered to extinction by larger majority populations.

[NamerOfStars]

He didn't- at that point, they were mostly speaking different languages anyway. Recall that Eden wasn't ALL of humanity; just the portion that Yahweh had direct control over (this is why Cain was worried about "other men" killing him, when the book to that point only mentions ONE other man, who was his father). Up until Joshua- well, really up until the failed Assyrian siege- Judaism was a distinctly henotheistic religion, not a monotheistic one.

[CuriousMufuxka]

God didn't do that. People did! Remember. Free will..

[Usher55]

So I take it you're not Christian then.

[CuriousMufuxka]

Agnostic

[Hannajenky]

God doesn’t exist, your question is faulty

[Usher55]

Many would beg to differ!

[Hannajenky]

Yea there are a lot of people in the world who believe dumb stuff. Not my problem

[Usher55]

But you and I, we know we're all just a coincidence and nothing really matters in this world. That's why I killed that man 3 years ago, and would do it again since there's no hell to attend to.

[Hannajenky]

You are trying to be humorous but what you are actually saying is that you are such a terrible, horrendous person that the only thing stopping you from literally killing people is the threat of eternal damnation.

I don’t need a fake god or a fake heaven or fake hell to be a good person and not murder people.

You are truly deranged. God is complete and utter bullshit.

[Usher55]

lol You thought I was joking? We're on the same side here.

[KostasKouvalis]

So they wouldn't be able to communicate with each other to complete the Tower of Babel

[FunkyMonkee]

I'm sure god had a lot to do with it!

[purplepoppy]

The biblical story doesn't make sense because what difference does it make if people elsewhere speak a different language? What matters is that people in the same location speak a common tongue.
People in biblical would have been travelling and trading over vast distances and would have been used to dealing with different languages.