Very rusty, BUT good for Hansen and co to pick Lancesters brains. The English played very well and kudos to them. They did not retreat into their shells and that is a good thing to see.
Will be intriguing what is in store next week.
For now, Thank You GOD for the win.
The religion of Islam has as its focus of worship a deity by the name of "Allah." The Muslims claim that Allah in pre-Islamic times was the biblical God of the Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. The issue is thus one of continuity. Was "Allah" the biblical God or a pagan god in Arabia during pre- Islamic times? The Muslim's claim of continuity is essential to their attempt to convert Jews and Christians for if "Allah" is part of the flow of divine revelation in Scripture, then it is the next step in biblical religion. Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other hand, if Allah was a pre- Islamic pagan deity, then its core claim is refuted. Religious claims often fall before the results of hard sciences such as archeology. We can endlessly speculate about the past or go and dig it up and see what the evidence reveals. This is the only way to find out the truth concerning the origins of Allah. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the Moon-god who was married to the sun goddess and the stars were his daughters. <P>
Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the Moon-god throughout the Middle East. From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile,
the most wide-spread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the
Moon-god. In the first literate civilization, the Sumerians have left us
thousands of clay tablets in which they described their religious beliefs. As
demonstrated by Sjoberg and Hall, the ancient Sumerians worshipped a Moon-god
who was called many different names. The most popular names were Nanna, Suen
and Asimbabbar. His symbol was the
crescent moon. Given the amount of artifacts concerning the worship of this
Moon-god, it is clear that this was the dominant religion in Sumeria. The cult
of the Moon-god was the most popular religion throughout ancient Mesopotamia. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and the
Akkadians took the word Suen and transformed it into the word Sin as their
favorite name for the Moon-god. As Prof. Potts pointed out, "Sin is a
name essentially Sumerian in origin which had been borrowed by the Semites. <P>"
In ancient Syria
and Canna, the Moon-god Sin was usually represented by the moon in its crescent
phase. At times the full moon was placed inside the crescent moon to emphasize
all the phases of the moon. The sun-goddess was the wife of Sin and the stars
were their daughters. For example, Istar was a daughter of Sin. Sacrifices to
the Moon-god are described in the Pas Shamra texts. In the Ugaritic texts, the
Moon-god was sometimes called Kusuh. In Persia,
as well as in Egypt,
the Moon- god is depicted on wall murals and on the heads of statues. He was
the Judge of men and gods. The Old
Testament constantly rebuked the worship of the Moon-god (see: Deut. 4:19;17:3;
II Kngs. 21:3,5; 23:5; Jer. 8:2; 19:13; Zeph. 1:5, etc.) When Israel fell into
idolatry, it was usually the cult of the Moon-god. As a matter of fact, everywhere in the ancient world, the symbol of the
crescent moon can be found on seal impressions, steles, pottery, amulets,
clay tablets, cylinders, weights, earrings, necklaces, wall murals, etc. In
Tell-el-Obeid, a copper calf was found with a crescent moon on its forehead.
An idol with the body of a bull and the head of man has a crescent moon inlaid
on its forehead with shells. In Ur,
the Stela of Ur-Nammu has the crescent symbol placed at the top of the register
of gods because the Moon-god was the head of the gods. Even bread was baked in
the form of a crescent as an act of devotion to the Moon-god. The Ur of the Chaldees was so
devoted to the Moon-god that it was sometimes called Nannar in tablets from
that time period.<P>
A temple of the Moon-god has been excavated in Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley. He
dug up many examples of moon worship in Ur and
these are displayed in the British
Museum to this day. Harran was likewise noted for its devotion to the
Moon-god. In the 1950's a major temple to the Moon-god was excavated at Hazer
in Palestine.
Two idols of the moon god were found. Each was a stature of a man sitting upon
a throne with a crescent moon carved on his chest . The accompanying
inscriptions make it clear that these were idols of the Moon-god. Several
smaller statues were also found which were identified by their inscriptions as
the "daughters" of the Moon-god. What about Arabia?
As pointed out by Prof. Coon, "Muslims
are notoriously loath to preserve traditions of earlier paganism and like to
garble what pre-Islamic history they permit to survive in anachronistic
terms."<P>
During the nineteenth century, Amaud, Halevy and Glaser went to Southern
Arabia and dug up thousands of Sabean, Minaean, and Qatabanian inscriptions
which were subsequently translated. In the 1940's, the archeologists G. Caton
Thompson and Carleton S. Coon made some amazing discoveries in Arabia.
During the 1950's, Wendell Phillips, W.F. Albright, Richard Bower and others
excavated sites at Qataban, Timna, and Marib (the ancient capital of Sheba).
Thousands of inscriptions from walls and rocks in Northern
Arabia have also been collected. Reliefs and votive bowls used in
worship of the "daughters of Allah" have also been discovered. The
three daughters, al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat are sometimes depicted together with
Allah the Moon-god represented by a crescent moon above them. The archeological evidence demonstrates
that the dominant religion of Arabia was the cult of the Moon-god.<P>
In Old Testament times, Nabonidus (555-539 BC), the last king of Babylon, built Tayma, Arabia
as a center of Moon-god worship. Segall stated, "South
Arabia's stellar religion has always been dominated by the
Moon-god in various variations." Many scholars have also noticed that
the Moon-god's name "Sin" is a part of such Arabic words as "Sinai,"
the "wilderness of Sin," etc. When the popularity of the
Moon-god waned elsewhere, the Arabs remained true to their conviction that the
Moon-god was the greatest of all gods. While they worshipped 360 gods at the
Kabah in Mecca,
the Moon-god was the chief deity. Mecca
was in fact built as a shrine for the Moon-god.<P>
This is what made it the most sacred site of Arabian paganism. In 1944, G.
Caton Thompson revealed in her book, The Tombs and Moon Temple of Hureidha,
that she had uncovered a temple of the Moon-god in southern Arabia.
The symbols of the crescent moon and no less than twenty-one inscriptions with
the name Sin were found in this temple. An idol which may be the Moon-god
himself was also discovered. This was later confirmed by other well-known
archeologists.<P>
The evidence reveals that the temple of
the Moon-god was active even in the Christian era. Evidence gathered from both
North and South Arabia demonstrate that
Moon-god worship was clearly active even
in Muhammad's day and was still the dominant cult. According to numerous
inscriptions, while the name of the Moon-god was Sin, his title was al-
ilah, i.e. "the deity," meaning that he was the
chief or high god among the gods. As Coon pointed out, "The god Il or
Ilah was originally a phase of the Moon God." The Moon-god was called
al- ilah, i.e. the god, which was
shortened to Allah in pre-Islamic times. The pagan Arabs even used Allah
in the names they gave to their children. For example, both Muhammad's father
and uncle had Allah as part of their names.<P>
The fact that they were given such names by their pagan parents proves that
Allah was the title for the Moon-god even in Muhammad's day. Prof. Coon goes on
to say, "Similarly, under Mohammed's tutelage, the relatively
anonymous Ilah, became Al-Ilah, The God, or Allah, the Supreme Being."
<P>
This fact answers the questions, "Why is Allah never defined in the
Qur'an? Why did Muhammad assume that the pagan Arabs already knew who Allah
was?" Muhammad was raised in the religion of the Moon-god Allah.
But he went one step further than his fellow pagan Arabs. While they believed
that Allah, i.e. the Moon-god, was the greatest of all gods and the supreme
deity in a pantheon of deities, Muhammad decided that Allah was not only the
greatest god but the only god.<P>
In effect he said, "Look, you already believe that the Moon-god Allah
is the greatest of all gods. All I want you to do is to accept that the idea
that he is the only god. I am not taking away the Allah you already worship. I
am only taking away his wife and his daughters and all the other gods."
This is seen from the fact that the first point of the Muslim creed is not, "Allah
is great" but "Allah is the greatest," i.e., he is
the greatest among the gods. Why would Muhammad say that Allah is the "greatest"
except in a polytheistic context? The Arabic word is used to contrast the
greater from the lesser. That this is true is seen from the fact that the
pagan Arabs never accused Muhammad of preaching a different Allah than the one
they already worshipped. This "Allah" was the Moon-god
according to the archeological evidence. Muhammad thus attempted to have it both ways. To the pagans, he said that he
still believed in the Moon-god Allah. To the Jews and the Christians, he said
that Allah was their God too. But both the Jews and the Christians knew better
and that is why they rejected his god Allah as a false god. <P>
Al-Kindi, one of the early Christian apologists against Islam, pointed out that
Islam and its god Allah did not come from the Bible but from the paganism of
the Sabeans. They did not worship the God of the Bible but the Moon-god and his
daughters al-Uzza, al-Lat and Manat. Dr. Newman concludes his study of the
early Christian-Muslim debates by stating, "Islam proved itself to
be...a separate and antagonistic religion which had sprung up from
idolatry." Islamic scholar
Caesar Farah concluded "There is no reason, therefore, to accept the
idea that Allah passed to the Muslims from the Christians and Jews."
The Arabs worshipped the Moon-god as a supreme deity. But this was not biblical
monotheism. While the Moon-god was greater than all other gods and goddesses,
this was still a polytheistic pantheon of deities. Now that we have the actual idols of the Moon-god, it is no longer
possible to avoid the fact that Allah was a pagan god in pre-Islamic times.
Is it any wonder then that the symbol of
Islam is the crescent moon? That a crescent moon sits on top of their mosques
and minarets? That a crescent moon is found on the flags of Islamic nations?
That the Muslims fast during the month which begins and ends with the
appearance of the crescent moon in the sky? <P>
Agreed Dave, but I suppose that is what happens when you select a one-season wonder like Israel Dagg, a weak and slow plodder like Aaron Cruden ahead of the infinitely more talented Beauden Barrett or has-beens like Conrad Smith and Richie McCaw ahead of exciting new talents like Malakai Fekitoa and Sam Cane.
I know some of our Kiwi friends will consider my above statement to be nothing short of blasphemy but there's no denying that to some extent, they're stuck in the same rut as us when it comes to replacing the old guard.
To England's credit they're giving their young guns some exposure. I was particularly impressed with Jonny May and Freddie Burns.
Agreed Rooi, Burns was good at 10 as was his kid brother for the England U20 side. May is a useful player who had his best game for England on the weekend, he struggled a little last year to make an impression at test level.
Yarde on the other wing had a quite game, but he is an awesome talent. I was also impressed with Eastman at 12 he is another Jason Robinson.
Agreed on those AB selections - at least they don't have 80% of their side who are past it like the Boks
Yes, ABs were not at their best Dave, Rooinek and others (most kiwi posts I have read have said the same thing) - nothing controversial about that assessment.
Going forward I am sure Hansen will ensure individual performance (including leadership), experience and team strategy/tactics will all be taken into account in selecting the team to play the Poms. I doubt we will see many changes for the next test but we will see an improvement of AB performance. The Poms will improve also so it will be a good test in the full sense of the word. I won't get into this God issue
Disclaimer: the angelic smile does not specifically relate to any religion.
Evolutionists claim that Dinosaurs and Man have Never lived together. Just read this letter I received below:
From someone who calls themselves "the heathen scientist" (08/03/2001)
"Dinosaurs died roughly 64,000,000 years ago, and humans didn't totally evolve until roughly half a million years ago. There's a time difference of about 63,500,000 years there."
You can see from my page on carbon dating that there are many false assumptions in carbon dating. Paintings, carvings and eyewitness accounts (including Job's in the Bible) show that man and dinosaurs did live together. Therefore the alleged millions of years that are supposed to separate the 2 disappears.
The physical evidence * and historical accounts of "Dragons" also show that man and dinosaurs lived together.
(*rapid deposition of fossils due to a global catastrophe like a flood)
Have there ever been any human fossils found Cretaceous rock?
Yes and No.
Cretaceous rock is the layer of rock that many geologists say dinosaurs are found in. But they don't have any accurate way of telling how old a layer of rock is (see my page on Carbon dating). They say it is Cretaceous rock only because dinosaurs are in it.
So if a layer of rock has dinosaurs in it then they say it is 165 million years old.
If humans are in it they say it is about 1 million years old.
The circular reasoning doesn't even cross their minds.
So if humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs, but lived in different places, they would be fossilized in different places as well.
Evolutionists believe that Dinosaurs died millions of years ago. But there is a great amount of evidence that dinosaurs lived only a few thousand years ago.
One of these pieces of evidence is a blood report from a t-rex with intact hemoglobin. Hemoglobin breaks down rapidly and could not last millions of years.
I have had a few people email me trying to disprove this, but a more recent (2005) find shows not only dinosaur blood, but soft, fibrous tissue, and complete blood vessels!
There have also been a few dinosaur like creatures, and numerous other animals thought to be extinct) caught in recent years (please see my page on "living fossils").
These amazing finds have caused the Scientific community to seriously rethink what they believed about the dinosaurs.
If they had read their Bibles, they would have known all along that God created man at the same time as the dinosaurs.
FOR SOME HEAVY DETAIL LOOK AT THIS LINK
http://manwithdinosaurs.blogspot.com/
ROOITWIT YOU ARE A RELIC OF THE PAST NOT UP TODATE WITH MODERN SCIENCE. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
ForeverArizona: sorry for your troubles mate, I hope you find some peace of mind!
