From: "Eric" <ericandmary-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: RE: Just a slob like one of us
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 23:16:56 -0600


Geof,

I've been having computer problems, so this response is be-lated.

I've read the Babel literally means the gates of god, also confusion,
hence the punning in the story. Since Babylon was a cosmic city which
mirrored the heavens, and astrology originated there, some have
suggested the terraces of the city may have each had a planetary
significance. By ascending each terrace, the citizen mimicked the ascent
into heaven, much like Dante in the structure of his Paradiso Cantos.
Although the usual theological gloss on Babel attributes it to the sin
of pride, the book of Genesis is actually far more ambiguous:

"Let us make a name for ourselves: otherwise we shall be scattered all
over the earth."

This tender and ethical sense of creating a name and community tends to
upset God, just as in the Eden story, not because he is a moral judge
filled with goodness but because he is a petty patriarch who feels
threatened by humanity's growing power and awareness. This is one of the
reasons why Zizek claims the fall and salvation are the same. The old
Gnostic story has it that the serpent was true liberator and the one who
foreshadowed Christ - Felix culpa - which is also why there is that
image of the serpent upon the cross found in the old talismans.  

In many ways the story of Pentecost is the fulfillment of Babel, just as
the cross is the tree of life in the midst of the garden and Christ is
the second Adam.  

What is interesting in this story is that dove (and we now know the
birds evolved from the reptiles - the eagle eats the serpent in order to
become it) does not speak Esperanto, one language, rather spirit acts as
an electronic translation machine, a tongue of fire, on fire:

"How is it that each of us hears them in his native tongue about the
marvels God has accomplished."

And what do the outsiders say about the gathering with a sneer:

"They have had too much new wine."

Here is where Paul and Nietzsche meet - in Christ/Dionysus - I am the
vine and you are the branches - or as Marvin Gaye once put it - I heard
it through the grapevine.

What if ethics was not about the rules by means of which we relate to
the Other, but about transformation - not merely treating the neighbor
with respect, but also realizing the kingdom of heaven and the
resurrection of the body; being born again?  

As Badiou puts it, the animal becomes an immortal in fidelity to the
event of a truth that itself remains unnameable.  Or as Sartre put it -
our greatest de-sire is to become god, which is simply good orthodox
teaching - god became humanity in order that humanity might become god -
the word becoming flesh as the divine cyborg - Deus Prosthetic. 

The blind see and the crippled walk...and god took on our weakness.

eric  
 

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