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Here are a few additional thoughts and resources:
The idea that all languages go back to what happened at the Tower of Babel is a traditional interpretation of Genesis 11, but we should note that the biblical text itself does not necessarily claim that these events affected all people all over the world. Genesis 11 does refer to “the whole earth” and “all the earth” in the King James translation (vv. 1, 4, 8, 9), but the Hebrew term ’erets usually just means “land,” as in “the land of Egypt” or “the land of Israel.” There’s also nothing in the text requiring that the group mentioned in Genesis 11:2 constitute all humans everywhere.
On the intersection of religion and modern science, see Jamie L. Jensen and Seth M. Bybee, Let’s Talk About Science and Religion (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2023).
See Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, 3 vols. (New York: Norton, 2019), 1:6–9.
For more detail on the Israelites’ cosmology, see John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009).
See Temper Longman III and John H. Walton, The Lost World of the Flood (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2018).
One example of Bible readers trying to make the biblical and scientific data “fit” is when we propose that “day” not be interpreted as a 24-hour day but instead a period of indefinite length, potentially millions of years. However, the Hebrew term, when expressed the way Genesis 1 expresses it, always means a 24-hour day elsewhere in the Old Testament. See Walton, Lost World of Genesis One, 86–91. In the story of the Flood, one common way of making Genesis and science “fit” is to propose that “earth” not be interpreted as the whole planet but instead a smaller region, a “land.” While the Hebrew term can be read this way (see note 1), this still doesn’t solve the bigger issue of the Flood narrative assuming that the earth is surrounded on all sides by a universe of water that is flooding into the air bubble we live in.
“Recognize That Revelation Is a Process,” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/seeking-answers-test/s05-recognize-revelation.
Biblical scholars have observed that while people today tend to be interested in the material origins of Creation, the Israelites were more focused on the functional aspects of Creation, meaning they were less interested in where “stuff” came from than how God ordered that stuff to bless humanity. John Walton compares this to the difference between describing the material origins of a house (what lumber was used, how the plumbing was installed, what style of roofing was incorporated) vs describing how that house has been turned into a home (what each room is used for, how the parents nurture their children there, what memories of family togetherness are created). See his interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7BbdUpf1KE&t=1s.
See Joshua M. Sears, “From Biology Major to Religion Professor: Personal Reflections on Evolution,” BYU Studies 63.1 (2024): 71–94, https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/from-biology-major-to-religion-professor/, particularly “Understanding What Genesis Is (and Is Not) Doing” on pp. 78–87. I also discuss the cosmology of Genesis 1 in a two-part episode of the podcast Follow Him, available at https://youtu.be/VqigA9clNSs and https://youtu.be/oFC8w124HE4, with a transcript available at https://followhim.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Genesis-1-3-Moses-2-3-Abraham-4-5-Dr.-Joshua-Sears-followHIM-Podcast-ENGLISH.pdf.
On some of the doctrinal lessons from the Flood narrative, see Aaron P. Schade, “The Rainbow as a Token in Genesis: Covenants and Promises in the Flood Story,” in From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021), 115–61, https://rsc.byu.edu/creation-sinai/rainbow-token-genesis.
See Doctrine and Covenants 84:14–15; 107:52; 133:54; 138:41.
For an excellent analysis of the narrative of the great tower, see George A. Pierce and Krystal V. L. Pierce, “The Tower of Babel, the Jaredites, and the Nature of God,” in They Shall Grow Together: The Bible in the Book of Mormon, ed. Charles Swift and Nicholas J. Frederick, Book of Mormon Academy (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022), 81–105, https://rsc.byu.edu/they-shall-grow-together/tower-babel-jaredites-nature-god.
See Joseph Fielding Smith, Man: His Origin and Destiny (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1954), 460–66; and Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 5 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957–1966), 5:112–17.
See Mark E. Petersen, Noah and the Flood (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1982). One commonly repeated justification for a global flood is the idea that this immersion functioned as the baptism of the earth. On the history of this idea, which was initially taken from nineteenth-century Protestants, see Paul Y. Hoskisson and Stephen O. Smoot, “Was Noah’s Flood the Baptism of the Earth?,” in Let Us Reason Together: Essays in Honor of the Life’s Work of Robert L. Millet, ed. J. Spencer Fluhman and Brent L. Top (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2016), 163–88, https://rsc.byu.edu/let-us-reason-together/was-noahs-flood-baptism-earth.
See Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966), 430.
See the discussions in Terryl Givens and Fiona Givens, The Crucible of Doubt: Reflections on the Quest for Faith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2014), 59–82; Patrick Q. Mason, Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt, Living Faith (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015), 99–116; Robert L. Millet, Whatever Happened to Faith? (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017), 59–62, 65–72; Anthony Sweat, Seekers Wanted: The Skills You Need for the Faith You Want (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2019), 115–33; David B. Ostler, Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question (Salt Lake City: Kofford, 2019), 53–54; S. Michael Wilcox, Holding On: Impulses to Leave and Strategies to Stay (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021), 53–63; W. Paul Reeve, Let’s Talk About Race and Priesthood (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2023), 120–26; and Sheri Dew, Prophets See Around Corners (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2023), 28–41.
Jeffrey R. Holland, “‘Lord, I Believe,’” April 2013 general conference, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/04/lord-i-believe.
See J. Devn Cornish, “What Do We Mean When We Say the Church Is True?,” Liahona, June 2024, 16–21, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2024/06/06-what-do-we-mean-when-we-say-the-church-is-true.
Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Come, Join with Us,” October 2013 general conference, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/10/come-join-with-us.
See Joseph M. Spencer, “Is Not This Real?,” BYU Studies Quarterly 58.2 (2019): 1–18, https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/is-not-this-real/.
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