[ wp ] A Tower of Babel level event occurs in 2015 ; 7 billion new languages have been created .

*The Lord said, “ Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another ’ s speech. ” * 
 
 Genesis 11:6-7 
 
 It happened again. 7 billion people forgot the languages they knew and suddenly learned ones known only to themselves. 
 
 Anno Domini 6/7/2-15 
 
 This time, the Lord took power from the many. The tower builders of prideful Babel did n't have the knowledge that we did. Science destroyed us. All over the world, nuclear reactor technicians unable to understand each other scrambled in opposing directions as their plants went critical and spread radiation on the jet stream. Pilots unable to coordinate with air traffic control landed in fields if they had their wits about them, or flew in holding patterns until they ran out of fuel and crashed. Religious panic seized people in stadiums all over the world, and more were trampled than escaped alive. In a world without language, people figured that violence worked perfectly well as a mode of communication. 
 
 This time, the Lord gave power to the few. The tower builders of prideful Babel did n't have the knowledge that we did. Science saved us. At MIT, the Pan-American Linguistics Conference was underway. Experts in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and psycholinguistics, from the lab and from the field, took the divine change with curiosity and poise. The field researchers, skilled at deriving grammar in less than ideal conditions, rose in a tiny government based initially on merit and hand signs. Kanin Athari was the first of the new languages to be decoded, and it took over the conference. The Atharian council ruled by the power of communication and ideas. Once scientists keen on diversity, the Council was twisted by power into a ruthless force. They expanded and unified the Americas, crushing the small, language-based tribes that had managed to learn together, who stood in the way of unity. Mesoste, Lethonan, Iksiri, Vintana... They all pay tribute to the Shinarim Atharine, the Atharian Empire. 
 
 I used to teach British Sign Language to new parents of deaf students. Now I stand on a parapet of an Irish castle, watching the Atharian navy advance across calm waters. I do n't know what God wanted to teach us by dividing our languages again. Give up our bigotry? Return to tradition? Feed the poor? The only thing most of us learned is how to load and shoot an AK and how to duct tape leaks on a radiation suit.
