Language Introduction Chomsky Bickerton Pinker Brain Theory Conclusion Sumer/Sumeria Civilization Religion Language Sargon Code of Hammurabi Marduk Enki Inanna Asherah Conclusion Biblical References Genesis 'Speaking in Tongues' Tower of Babel Computer Binary Code Snow Crash Sites Bibliograpy Home

Genesis There are traces of Sumerian religion in the writings of the Bible, however, the bulk of information is gathered in Genesis. Old Testament, Genesis 2: 8-10 "Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden, freom there divided; it had four headstreams." According to Sumerian myth, Eden, a place is similar to the Sumerian Dilmun. Dilmun is a pure, bright and holy land--now often identified with Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. It is blessed by Enki to have overflowing, sweet water. Enki fills it with lagoons and palm trees. He impregnates Ninhursag and causes eight new plants to grow from the earth. Eden, 'in the East' (Gen 2: 8) has a river which also 'rises' or overflows, to form four rivers including the Tigris and Euphrates. It too is lush and has fruit bearing trees (Gen 2: 9-10) 'Speaking in Tongues' Speaking in tongues (glossolalia) is a Christian religious phenomenon in which the believer, in an esctatic state, speaks in a foreign language or utters unintelligible sounds that are taken to contain a divine message. "It (glossolalia) is a neurological phenomenon that is merely exploited in religious rituals." Glossolalia comes from structures buried deep with in the brain, common to all people." (192) "C. W. Shumway observed the Los Angeles revival of 1906 and noted six basic symptoms: complete loss of rational control; dominance of emotion that leads to hysteria; absence of thought or will; automatic functioning of the speech organs; amnesia; and occasional sporadic physical manifestations such as jerking and twitching. Eusebius observed similar phenomenon around the year 300, saying that the false prophet begins by a deliberate suppression of conscious thought, and ends in a delirium over which he has no control." (193) Tower of Babel Old Testament, Genesis 11: 1-9 "Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As man moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar (Babylonia) and settled there. They said to each other, 'Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' They used brick instead of stone,and tar instead of mortar. 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 and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.' But the Lord came down to see the city and the towerthat the men 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.' So the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it is called Babel--because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world." This is the Bible's explanation for why there are so many languages in the world. As the population increased, it apparently remained in a single region. But when humans rejected God's instructions to scatter over the planet, God intervened and initiated the major language groupings of the human race. This action forced the people to proceed with God's original intention to inhabit the Earth by clustering according to shared languages.