We are NOT in Just Another Age of Opposition
Liberal Theologians say the Flood and Babel are Complete Fiction
When the sun sets, we know it goes into pretty deep darkness for a long time before the major light returns.
We can surmise therefore, that since the Fall is dogma, it is highly possible that humanity really did go sour fast, meaning, getting wicked, since the Fall is the beginning of a sunset from original justice.
But if the near whole of humanity really did become substantially wicked, and God did nothing, but let history run its course, what would be the result? Here, we must look into the face of a child, and ask ourselves, are not even children fallen? Therefore, what can we say, except that a child will continue to challenge parental guidance until the first discipline. After all, if a child has never experienced consequences for its persistent resistance to parental direction, will they come to obey of their own volition, simply by parental pleading?
All the more will fallen humanity, in that first great night of history, not be prepared to change its ways even in the face of Divine pleading. But then, if there is no Divine Chastisement, their wickedness will persist ad infinitum, with no check. And what is the end of a world that is wicked with no cure? What is the end of world that is SPIRITUALLY dead except a world that is PHYSICALLY dead. And, hence, the end of a world in which wickedness is not going to change is self destruction. Hence, if God lays back and does nothing, THE WORLD WILL END!
Hence, the Flood, unlike hard-hearted Fundamentalism, is not God being angry and lettin' em have it, but MERCIFULLY intervening to DISCIPLINE humanity so as to PREVENT it from destroying itself.
We see this in how Our Lord compares Noah's Day to the end of the world. ("As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man.")
Christ and the Apocalypse imply that man's wickedness in the end will be practically incurable. "And if those days had not been shortened, no flesh should be saved." This makes no sense, unless humanity is practically incurable spiritually. For if a substantial repentance of man was yet possible at the end, then the self destruction of humanity could be averted. But, "like Noah's day", humanity is not listening to God, and in a manner in which they, practically, never will again. Hence, there is nothing to "restrain" the full consequences of iniquity,, as St Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in his second letter (2 Thess 2), and the end of unrestrained iniquity, as in Noah's day, is SELF DESTRUCTION.
But like Noah's day, God intervenes to prevent the world from total annihilation, through the fire of the Second Coming, in order that "some elect" might remain at the end.
The darkness, therefore, of Noah's day, is vanquished by the light of the Flood.
Now, after this, naturally, the sun sets into the other great principle of the fall, materialism. Here, man is not so much wicked as infatuated with the Creation. They want a superficial relationship with the VISIBLE creaTION, instead of a profound relationship with the INvisible CreaTOR. This is really like seeking your happiness in THIS world rather than the next, or, materialism: seeking ultimate fulfillment in pleasures, possessions, and egotistical accomplishments. This works out to secular grandeur, symbolized by a tower. Man is joined in perverse unity for materialistic glory and accomplishment.
The unity, of course, is not holy, but perverted and rooted in selfish ambition, unlike the antithesis to this Whore that is unfaithful to Her Creator with the Creation, the CHASTE Woman, the Church, who is journeying already in profound betrothal to Her Maker toward the consummation with Her Beloved Savior.
We also understand that basic unicity of language is highly probable at this time. Why? Well, first, God would never create humanity at the outset with conflicted tongue, since it would senselessly and unjustifiably frustrate the end of human existence, which is not only to love God but also love one another, which is inseparable from communication.
But then, if the wickedness of the Fall accelerates rather quickly like the setting of the sun, we can anticipate that man's communication does not diverge too far from a substantial barrier to cooperation.
Hence, emerging from the Flood, man's basic unicity in tongue is still preserved.
Now, as with the wickedness of Noah's day, man's infatuation with the Creation is not curable without Divine Intervention. His gaze is set, and hence, any attempt at sending substantial Divine Revelation or offer of covenant will be futile. It will go ignored.
Hence, as with the Flood, a discipline is necessary. Here, the unimpeded cooperation of selfishly ambitious and perverse unity must be temporarily broken up, or restrained. The confounding of communication is the most natural and easiest solution.
Note, this is not the ultimate will of God, that is, to set humanity up for national rivalry, strife, bloodshed, etc. Nevertheless, it is a necessary evil if God is to be able to set up a special seed of His ultimate desire to Incarnate, which is the prefiguring People, the Hebrews.
Later of, course, when sinful humanity will have more or less overcome the language restraint in the mighty, universal collection of nations and tongues, Pagan Rome, God will be in a position to reunite humanity as at Babel, but His mantel of love, truth, and grace, the Church!
Hence, we see that we cannot easily and totally dismiss the historicity of the Flood and the Confounding of Tongue at Babel without apparently undermining preeminent history before the formation of the Old Covenant.
But, alas ,the same liberals that don't like the so-called harshness of the Flood and Babel, saying it makes God "mean, brutal and judgmental" are usually also the ones that hug their kids and try to woo them to stop screaming when they have a temper tantrum instead of giving them a swat on the ass, or that just let their little boys play video games endlessly in loving "tolerance", since making them have limited time in materialistic infatuation with leisure is clearly "overbearing."