“ to the attitude we have , roughly , whenever we take something to be the case or regard it as true .” Interestingly , many define faith as belief without proof . Although many use these three terms interchangeably , Chiang employs them in specific ways in his stories .
In the “ Tower of Babylon ,” Chiang uses the biblical story of the tower of Babel as his premise . His focus is not on God ’ s creation of various languages as punishment for defying Him , but on humanity ’ s desire “ to see what lay beyond [ the earth ’ s ] borders , all the rest of Yahweh ’ s creation ” ( 5-6 ). This story juxtaposes science with faith and religion as the Babylonians are building the tower so they can break into the vault of heaven . They desire knowledge about their world , but also desire knowledge about God , believing that the tower will enable them “ to ascend to see the works of Yahweh ” while allowing Yahweh to “ descend to see the works of man ” ( 6 ). In this story , Ted Chiang combines the above definitions of religion as a “ search for meaning , purpose and significance ” as well as the desire for material and spiritual improvement ( Popcak ).
In addition to religion as a thematic focus , Chiang also incorporates geocentrism : a specific , albeit outdated , “ scientific worldview ” ( Smith ). As Alexander Robishaw explains :
The envisaged structure is simple : Earth was seen as being situated in the middle of a great volume of water , with water both above and below Earth . A great dome was thought to be set above Earth ( like an inverted glass bowl ), maintaining the water above Earth in its place . Earth was pictured as resting on foundations that go down into the deep . These foundations secured the
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