Previously I had discovered that the story of Noah's Ark originated with a previous civilization so I assumed that this was also true of some of the other Old Testament stories. I was not surprised, then, when I recently read that the Tower of Babel might have also originated with the Sumerians as told in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. In this antecedent, I also see elements of the story of Cain and Abel.
What did surprise me was that in some civilizations there were variations in which the tower was being built just in case the gods sent another Great Deluge to prevent humans from overpopulating the world. Instead of conceit, as told in the Old Testament, the purpose was survival. Our inability to date to speak with one voice on the subject of Climate Change is resulting in global flooding and the Anthropocene Extinction.
My update to the Optihumanist Principles for 2021 is to insert the following line into the "Optimism is Opportunity" section:
We unite to overcome obstacles.
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