Popular Culture Review 30.1
The inhabitants debate how God may perceive their attempts to reach Him . Qurdusa , one of the tower ’ s bricklayers , argues that “ if the tower were sacrilege , Yahweh would have destroyed it earlier ” causing one of the Elamites to counter : “ If Yahweh looked upon this venture with such favor there would already be a stairway ready-made for us to use in the vault ” ( 19 ). Hillalum , however , takes a more Deistic viewpoint , saying , “ Yahweh may not punish us , but Yahweh may allow us to bring our judgment upon ourselves ” ( 19 ). The God in this story creates the world but does not actively intervene . When Hillalum and the others hit a reservoir , he believes “ his fate had come at last . Yahweh had not asked men to build the tower or to pierce the vault ; the decision to build it belonged to men alone , and they would die in this endeavor just as they did in any of their earthbound tasks . Their righteousness could not save them from the consequences of their actions ” ( 24 ). In this world , the focus is on the choices one makes and the consequences one must pay for those choices . Yes , God exists , but He does not intervene in human lives , nor does He care if they are virtuous or sinful , or if they worship or ignore Him .
Hillalum ’ s realization of how the world is structured leads him to an understanding of why God never responds to humanity ’ s attempts to reach him :
It was clear now why Yahweh had not struck down the tower , had not punished men for wishing to reach beyond the bounds set for them : for the longest journey would merely return them to the place whence they ’ d come . Centuries of their labor would not reveal to them any more of Creation than they already knew . Yet through their endeavor , men would glimpse the unimaginable
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