The Tower of Babel: John Larsen/Carah Burrell @JohnLarsen1 @nuancehoe | Ep. 1603

The Tower of Babel story is not just an Old Testament curiosity for Latter-day Saints. It is load-bearing infrastructure. Without a literal Tower of Babel, the Book of Mormon’s Jaredite narrative collapses. The Mormon Stories Podcast episode 1603, featuring John Larsen and Carah Burrell, dismantles this foundation stone by stone, showing how the biblical account contradicts itself and how modern evidence renders the narrative impossible. For believers who have been taught to read Genesis as history, the gap between scripture and reality forces a decision.

Background: The Textual Contradiction

The biblical narrative in Genesis 11 describes humanity speaking one language, building a tower to heaven in Shinar, and God confusing their tongues to scatter them across the earth. This supposedly happened around 2200 BCE according to biblical chronology. Yet Larsen points out a problem visible on any careful reading: Genesis 10:5 already describes the nations separated by their languages before the Tower of Babel event occurs