The Fall of Babylon and the Great Filter

Usually, when one has a complex and interesting thought, it is best to polish it first, and arrange it like a seven course meal, prepared for someone important. But these are not fully fleshed out thoughts. Indeed, now that I am delving into this, I find I am in great danger of delving too deeply, as it were. I am shocked just how much Isaiah has to say on the Fall of Babylon. But the pure Isaiah exposition will have to wait. For now, I am going to dump the jigsaw puzzle pieces on the table, and let all present work them out.

And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. Isa. 13:11

The word translated world is tevel. It means not simply world, but a “world system” built on pride, hierarchy, oppression, and idolatry. Babylon is not merely idolatry – it is a whole world system enforcing it.

This tevel is everywhere present, everywhere demanding, and simultaneously shakier than ever. There is a very real crisis of meaning. There is a structural mismatch where the top has grown disproportionately, while the base decays. There is a moral exhaustion, and a lack of will, while simultaneously fighting for survival. Everywhere, we can see in our own world, Babylon crumbling.

Some of my words here are metaphorical, but I am talking about very real collapse, spiritually, mentally, socially and then economically and politically. People are not going to know so much as what way is up. Things they believed all their lives will be shown to be false and they won’t know what to believe.

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There has been much debate on if we are entering a second civil war and who would win. Typically, left or right is posited as potential winners. Rarely do people consider the possibility of mutual assured destruction. Fortunately, the Book of Mormon is clear that this is a very real possibility.

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In astrobiology, there is a concept called the Great Filter. It is a response to the question, if there are so many habitable planets, why haven’t we seen aliens. It suggests either that intelligent life is improbable or destruction is highly probable.

But perhaps we miss the forest for the trees, looking for this Great Filter.

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Having children is getting harder, if only because there are so many other things we could be doing. As technology improves, the number of things we can do increases. And unless we have a good reason to do them, they just don’t happen by chance.

Our technological prowess is selecting us out of existence. Soon, only those with a strong spiritual reasons for family will remain.

This principle applies to a great many things. Unless we have a good reason to do them, we don’t take the time or money to do it. Reasons are increasingly important, because alternatives are increasing.

A lot of people believe in God, but a lot fewer find the time to get to church.

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Technology, at first, has supported Babylon. We have surveillance, and a soft control on media narratives. We have central banks, top-down academia gatekeeping, and a ballooning legal code

But decentralization makes this much harder for Babylon than for Zion. The control erodes away top down control.

Decentralization is a very real threat to the political order of Babylon. Moreso to Babylon than wickedness in general.

That isn’t to say decentralization is all utopia and rainbows. Autonomy, and empowerment can also give us fragmentation and isolation.

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Perhaps Technology and Science themselves are the Great Filter. Or rather, Science without a sufficient Spiritual Foundation. Perhaps worlds unprepared for Science have it withheld from them until they are ready. Because without that Spiritual Foundation, too much Science and Technology will destroy them.

Science and Technology can be used for evil means, but also for great means.

Perhaps this Great Filter is the same as the Fall of Babylon.

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We believe that during the Millennium that the Earth will transition from a Telestial State to a Terrestrial State. Is this a singular moment, like when you level up in a video game? Just a sudden upgrade in existence? Or is it more like the dawn? Do those of a Telestial character just have a progressively more difficult time existing, until only those of a Terrestrial or higher character are able to exist at all?

I have a suspicion that Telestial people will exist in the Millennium, but they will handle it about as well as fish out of water. It will not be a place they can stand staying. Or existing.