Joni Van Zyl Mrs.

Emerick English 10 Honors 9 September 2013 The True Origin of Language Proverbs 18:21 states, The tongue has the power of life and death. This verse explains how much our language impacts our world around us. We cannot even fathom how much our voices can move mountains or destroy countries. I have been doing a lot of research on this topic and this is what I have discovered: Through the hundreds of years humans have studied language, no one has been able to produce a logical explanation of why language exists. Language is so powerful, that it could not have been formed by accident. God made us all unique, and part of this is defined from our languages. Language is a very complicated skill that a certain entity, God, has blessed us with; there is no other explanation. Because of human nature, a supernatural God creating our universe sounds unethical and seems to defy all the variables of human logic. This explains why we try to create our own solutions and theories of how the world came to be. However, our methods are always full of holes. We are never really sure where language came from. "We cannot excavate some fossil from an Ethiopian hillside, point to a bone, and declare, 'This is where language began.'" (Zimmer) This quote came from the well-spoken evolutionist and writer Carl Zimmer who sees that there is no worldly explanation for the formation of language. If there is no worldly explanation for language, could there be a supernatural one, perhaps? According to more of Zimmer's article, The Language Fossils Buried in Every Cell in Your Body, some scholars believed that language began from cries of pain that finally evolved into words. This theory, in my opinion, sounds the most logical. However, there are other theories mentioned in the article as well. One of them in particular would be that our language evolved from the grunts and sounds protruding from animals. This scientific guess doesn't back up the theory of evolution very well. How can our complicated language patterns be confused with the simple communication skills between two animals? The answer is simple: we were made differently from animals. For the complexity of our speech to be brought to surface, there must've been an intelligent creator who already knew the intricacies of language. Unfortunately, most evolutionists throw out the existence of a 'God', which is why the secret of the creation of language is still undiscovered.

"Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts." (Rothfuss) This quote explains just how powerful language could be. As stated in Genesis 1:3-31, God spoke the world into existence and it was so. Just from a mere few words, life itself came to pass. Language makes the world go round, literally. If God had not created language, America would not have been an independent country. How else would we have communicated our ideas to start a nation without language? If language was not created, Martin Luther King Jr., would not have given his I Have a Dream speech resulting in never achieving racial equality in the United States. Language has brought much greatness to our world; how can there not be a divine and intelligent purpose for language? Although language has benefited us tremendously, all things that were created for good becomes corrupted by man and the devil. The downfall of language began in Genesis 3:14. This story is when the serpent used language as a manipulative and sly plan to infiltrate God's perfect world, and to fill it with sin and corruption. Ever since then, man has found ways to turn language into a form of evil. An example would be when Adolph Hitler used the power of language to convince his people to use the outcasts of society as science experiments and to torture them in many gruesome ways such as gaseous chambers. Another example that language has been used for man's own selfish desires is the story of the Tower of Babel, stated in Genesis 11:1-9. Since everyone had the same language, they used this to their advantage and tried to build a tower that would reach God. To punish them for their pride, God separated the people's languages so they could not finish the tower. Language has an enormous amount of power. How can it only be described as vibrations and tones protruding from lips and not come from someone more intelligent and powerful than we know? Although we are of our own species, all humans are very unique from one another. The same goes for animals, but it is hard to differentiate one animal from another. We are all humans, but we can make a logical guess of where we came from by listening to our languages and accents. For example, if you looked at an Englishman and heard their voice, you would automatically assume that they were from Great Britain. To you, they may have looked like they originated from America, but the way they speak tells you otherwise. God's main purpose was not to make us different in language, but to unify us. However, because of the Tower of Babel story, His plan has changed. In Galatians 3:28, it shows us that no matter what language we speak, and no matter what country we came from, we are all united in Christ. We all should speak Christ's language of love to others. That is God's new plan for us. Language is a very tricky concept to discuss. Many scientists have tried to explain this phenomenon that has come to be, but have failed. However, because of the amount of

power and impact, and how languages all make us unique, the obvious explanation is that language was formed by one ultimate Creator, with a perfect plan for our world.

Works Cited "18 Bible Verses about Cultural Diversity." What Does the Bible Say About Cultural Diversity? Crossway Bibles, 2001. Web. 08 Sept. 2013. Creech, Charles F. "Genesis 3:7 08 Sept. 2013. ." Genesis 3:7. Bible Gems Inc., 2007. Web.

Good Reads Inc. "Quotes About Language." Goodreads.com. Good Reads Inc., 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013. "The Language Fossils Buried in Every Cell of Your Body." Richarddawkins.net. The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, n.d. Web. Nelson, Inc., Thomas. "Genesis 1-3." Holy Bible NIV. N.p.: n.p., 1982. 1-4. Print.

Nelson, Inc., Thomas. "Proverbs 18:21." Holy Bible. N.p.: Thomas Nelson, 1982. 878. Print.