Otos and Ephialtes

Otos and Ephialtes were two giants and children of Poseidon.  Just as the gods had challenged the authority of the Titans, so the giants desired to challenge the authority of the gods on Olympus.  The two of them lifted Mt. Pelion, placing it upon Mt. Ossa, in order to ascend into the heavenly realm of Olympus.  But Apollo noted their efforts, and with one arrow, slew them both.

-From Greece

 So let's talk about this for a moment.  There are obvious "Tower of Babel" implications here, something that comes up quite a bit in world mythology.  So much so, in fact, that it I would officially classify it - as if my word were ever truly "official"! - as a Global Myth.  But I think this story is much more than just another Global Myth; it is, rather, the lynch-pin that holds the entire theory of Telephone Mythology together.

Telephone Mythology, if you're unfamiliar with the phrase, states that the most ancient of our stories - Creation, Flood, Babel, etc. - all have their origin in real events, and that the Tower of Babel event is precisely why we have so many different versions of these stories, and yet the stories themselves are not only common to the ancient world (spanning the globe from Australia to Alaska), but they have several common threads that link them together.  The differences can be explained away, but the similarities are difficult to explain.  So is the presence of these stories in hundreds of cultures around the globe.  The only logical explanation for these occurrences is that, at some point in our history, the Tower of Babel actually occurred, mankind was struck with an instant change in languages, and the people, as a result, scattered and became isolated into whatever groups now existed.    

And what do we do with our children?  We tell them stories, of course.  We tell them stories we make up, we tell them stories that are important to us - family history - we tell them the stories we grew up hearing.  This is why "The Three Little Pigs" is still told.  I grew up reading a version of that story, and I tell it to my daughter now.  A singular event, such as the development of different cultures, would inarguably be told and retold.  

But it would also change.  This is why we have several versions of The Three Little Pigs.  In some, the wolf eats the first two pigs, in others, he doesn't.  In some, the wolf dies at the end (and even how he dies varies), in others, he runs away, angry, never to return.  Sometimes the pigs buy their building materials, sometimes they find them and gather them themselves.  The pig who uses straw can be either simple-minded, lazy, or just plain cheap.  The story, which isn't that old, has already morphed into numerous versions.

We also see languages change rather rapidly.  Here in America, we speak English.  But here's the deal: someone born and raised in New York City speaks a vastly different English from someone born and raised in Mobile, Alabama.  The dialects - though both of them English - are so different that many people in these areas can't even understand one another.  

If we look more broadly, the English spoken in America is different from its Mother English, that spoken across the pond in England.  Now, of course, the King's English has itself changed, even since the time of Shakespeare. 

And then there's culture.  While we originally started as (mostly) English colonies, our culture here in America is quite a bit different from the culture over in England.  Much to my dismay, for example, we do not have "tea time."  They regularly build multi-level bookstores.  

So when met with naysayers who scoff and claim that Telephone Mythology is impossible, that "everyone knows" there was no Global Flood, the Tower of Babel is a fairy-tale, and the like, I sort of get perplexed.  We see cultures changing - rapidly, at times - around us even today.  We see stories that are only a hundred or so years old changing around us.  We see languages and dialects changing around us.  In other words, most of the main components of this idea are visible to us, even today, and what we see in this story of Otos and Ephialtes is further example of Telephone Mythology at work.

Which must inevitably lead to the conclusion that the Tower of Babel was, in all likelihood, a real event.  Now, if you dismiss the Bible, you cannot do so on grounds of "science," "evidence," or "logic," for we see the evidence, the science, and the logic of it all around us.  Know, then, that if you dismiss it, it's because you choose to, not because you're smart enough to figure out that it's lying.  Because to assume that it must be false, you, indeed, must dismiss a great deal of this evidence and logic to which you claim to so desperately cling when building your view of reality.  I cannot make you believe the Bible, but I can leave you with no choice but to either accept it, or deny reality.  

And so the choice, then, is up to you.  I hope - no, I actually, literally pray - that you will see this, you will open an actual Bible, and perhaps for the first time, read it for what it is:  Truth.