Tower of Babel – Chapter 11:3 Book of Genesis: “Come let us build ourselves…a tower with its top in the sky.”

Space exploration – We have landed a man on the moon and have plans for a manned mission to Mars.

Each has in common the theme – “Reaching for the sky”. And in the words of Star Trek: “Where no man has gone before.”

An astronaut is carved on the Mayan leader Pacal Votan’s 683 A.D. tombstone discovered in 1947. Pacal Votan is shown in what looks like an ancient spaceship or time machine. He is sitting in a cockpit,his hands are turning instruments, his foot appears to be on a pedal, a tube is inserted into his nose as if he is receiving oxygen and wisps of smoke or exhaust appear to be shooting from the bottom of the ship.

But the Mayans weren’t describing a spaceship or time machine. They were describing the nature of human consciousness. Humans are evolving (or maybe reverting) into a new consciousness where we are aware of our connection to all nature including trees, plants, animals, earth, planets, stars and the entire universe.

The internet has been a leap forward to this; the ultimate situation, because it expands our awareness. Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin called the final stage; the Omega Point. Ray Kurzweil said the Omega Point is the Singularity where we will be totally conscious of everything. To do that we must have a common language as people had before the tower of Babel came tumbling down. There is hope for humanity yet.