I have written recently in my blog about the case of Cher Lyn Tomayko. She had for years been on the FBI’s most wanted list for abducting her child and bringing her to Costa Rica against a court order that the child remain in the U.S. Recently Costa Rica granted her refugee status in the face of U.S. demands for her extradition. Now another women has asked for the same protection. Her name is Nicole Elise Kater of 28 years. She is claiming that she fled to Costa Rica with the child (against court order) to flee from aggression and strange sexual practices of her boyfriend (and father of the child), John F. Gehl. She is currently being held at the prison Buen Pastor, pending a decision on her extradition. Like Tomayko, she is asking for refugee status that would allow her to remain in Costa Rica with the child. Like the father of Cher’s child, the father is claiming that there was no aggression nor strange sexual behavior that might warrant such status.

I took the position in my previous blog post re the case of Cher Lyn Tomayko in favor of Costa Rica’s decision to grant refugee status. I did so on principle only, accepting as fact that in Cher’s case there was abuse that warranted her fleeing to Costa Rica I still support the concept that Costa Rica would rightly grant such status in cases where there is an investigation with hard proof that abuse has taken place. In several comments, I was taken to task by the older daughter of Cher’s former boyfriend and father of the child Cher brought to Costa Rica The young lady informed me in no uncertain terms that her father is completely innocent of abuse. I am not going to argue the case with someone who is certainly much closer to the factual situation than I could ever be. I will say that I am uncomfortable with this present lady seemingly trying to “ride the coattails” of the Tomayko decision. Maybe what she is saying is true. However, Costa Rica needs to take a good and hard look into the facts of the case before granting any such status again. Otherwise, they are opening the floodgates for such requests and some are surely going to lack legitimacy.

It should of course go without saying that women deserve respect. The current nomination of Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential running mate with John McCain on the Republican ticket and her incredible performance at the Republican Convention last night, confirms that not only do they deserve respect, but they are quite capable of earning it in the face of vehement and vulgar attempts at the opposite. In cases where there is clear abuse and yet a U.S. court is trying to intimidate Costa Rica into ceding to its demands (as it seemed the case with Cher Tomayko) then Costa Rica is right in protecting human dignity by granting such protective status and respecting the right of a woman to live with her child free from abuse, whether it be pychological or physical. However, Costa Rica must also be careful to weigh the facts of such cases and not just give the benefit of the doubt to whatever claims are being raised to support the request for refugee status. It is a fine line to walk and Costa Rica needs to proceed very careful with this and any other future cases.

The story has been passed down over the years, capturing the imagination of both schoolchildren and adults alike, and for many years students of military history have attempted to no avail, to find the location in the Argonne forest where the action took place.

Formed in 2005. The team objective was to discover Alvin York’s firing site in the Argonne forest, France.

Using historical records and maps from the time, the group set out in March 2006 and over a 5 day period found a number of interesting artifacts from the period but nothing conclusive as to the site of York’s fight. Further research was undertaken in archives by Dr Nolan which resulted in a 10 day expedition in November of 2006. This time, the group altered the position of their investigations slightly. They had no idea of the compelling evidence they would discover.

THE FIGHT IN THE FOREST:

On October 8 1918 the sleepy little village of Ch?tel-Ch?h?ry on the edge of the mighty Argonne forest was to be part of an action that would cast it headlong into a site of military historic homage for the next 90 years. The attack by the 82nd Division at that point was designed to seize a German railway that was supplying German troops along the front line. In part, the attack was also to relieve the Lost Battalion, a group of American soldiers led by Major Charles Whittlesey, who had found themselves surrounded and cut-off by superior German forces near Binarville, a small village in the forest only 8 kilometers distant.

Corporal Alvin C. York was one of the men in the attack, his unit was the 328th Infantry, Company G of the 82nd Division who found themselves pinned down by heavy German machine-gun fire. In an attempt to eradicate this threat, York and 17 men under the command of Sergeant Bernard Early was detailed to work their way through the lines and behind the machine-guns and to destroy them.

Picking their way through forest and undergrowth and an autumnal mist, they made their way undetected for a distance of about 1 mile before they saw 2 German soldiers bearing red cross armbands, they immediately ran off into the undergrowth. Early detailed his men to form a skirmish line and they then gave chase. Coming to a small stream they disturbed a large group of German soldiers, who,surprised to see American soldiers so far from the action, were seated and having breakfast on the bank on the other side of the stream.

After a few initial shots from the Americans, the Germans surrendered. The Americans were in the process of securing their prisoners when they were fired on from the hill behind by a German machine-gun. Immediately Sgt. Early was hit multiple times in the lower body rendering him unfit to command. In total, 6 of the patrol were killed and 3 wounded which left Alvin York the senior N.C.O.

Documentary evidence states that York was in a position where the machine-gun could not properly see him, the German gunners had to raise their heads in order to gain a full view. York being the backwoodsman marksman he was, raised his weapon and was able to shoot the gunners one at a time.

He was then charged by a German officer and soldiers, he shot them all sequentially from the rear most first. This way the soldiers at the front would not be aware that they were being shot, therefore they would not take to cover.

After only a short time, the Germans surrendered to York and the survivors of the patrol. They were rounded up with York and the American soldiers in the middle of the formation and marched back to American lines, collecting more Germans who capitulated en-route.

Upon arrival at camp, 132 prisoners were counted. A little later an American officer counted 25 German bodies at the site of the battle.

York was promoted Sergeant and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In 1929 there was a re-enactment of the fight at the Army War College. Two officers from York’s unit, Captain Danforth and Major Buxton (who later wrote the divisional history of the 82nd Division) independently supplied the Army with maps they had drawn as to the route they felt the patrol had taken. Although there is a little difference as to be expected, the two route lines on the map are much the same.

This document was discovered by a member of the team in the archives at Washington D.C. Also found were the map coordinates of the site of burial of members of the patrol who had been killed. This record had been made by the Graves Registration Unit. There was an anomaly with the coordinates as written but after examination it was discovered the positions of the graves had been recorded the wrong way round and when assembled in the correct order the grave locations were in the same area where the Team were conducting their investigations.

METHODOLOGY:It was intended by the group to reexamine the historical record and the physical landscape of the York site using an interdisciplinary methodology combining geography, history and archeology. The whole purpose was to locate Alvin York’s firing position during the action. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology would be employed to integrate historic maps, reports and other documents in a spatial database that would model the landscape as it was in October 1918. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology would be used to navigate to York’s most probably position based on historical spatial data. A metal detector would be used to locate artifacts related to the fight. The artifacts would then be mapped using GPS and added to the spatial database. GIS would be used to analyze the spatial data to determine the most probable location of Alvin York’s firing position.It was hoped that the following questions would be answered:

1.How can GIS be used to integrate history and archeology to create an accurate picture of Alvin York’s activities on October 8 1918?

2. Can GIS successfully resolve some of the controversies and contradictions in written accounts of the York fight?

3. Can Gis serve as the basis for preserving the spatial record of the York fight and creating interpretive materials for battlefield tourism?

THE DISCOVERIES:

Previous attempts had been made by others to locate the fight site. Notably the investigation conducted by two Army Colonels in 2000. Their approach was to use modern day application of military tactics in such circumstances as was known in 1918. The METT-T (Mission, Enemy, Terrain, Troops and Time) and OCOKA (Observation and fields of fire, Cover and Concealment, Obstacles, Key terrain, and Avenues of approach) edicts. This method allowed them to identify the general area of engagement but failed to pinpoint York’s firing position or the location of the German participants.

In 2006 a serving Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army with another team was attempting to locate the position. He used many German records and accounts but strangely discounted the map information as supplied by Buxton and Danforth. The group announced in 2006 that they had identified the firing position and produced a large number of both American and German artifacts from the period to substantiate their claim.

The exploration was re-started by a second visit in November 2006 which was planned to allow for maximum GIS/GPS capability e.g. there would be little interference from the tree canopy foliage, there was an immediate battery failure on the Trimble Recon data collector. Instead the Trimble Pathfinder Pro XRS unit was used for mapping artifacts in the field, but with continental generosity from the D3E Electronique GPS Boutique, the team were able to access base station files that were used to post-process the data to sub-meter accuracy.

The team initially set out to find the site where four German .77m field guns had been captured by the 2nd Battalion on 8 October. This position had been described in a transcript of a question and answer document held between Major G. Edward Buxton and the 2nd Battalion Commander, Major Tillman concerning the battalion attack on October 8 1918. Tillman had described the position of the guns in his account of the attack.

Almost immediately the search revealed three live .77mm shells with the copper driving bands chiseled off by post war savagers. A further search located twelve .77mm shell cases and seven protective shipping covers for .77mm shell fuses. This confirmed the location of the four .77mm guns captured by the 2nd Battalion and fixed the right flank of the battalion attack. This had the effect of increasing the Team’s confidence in the documentary evidence.

Returning to the general area the team had researched previously and making corrections based upon Danforth & Buxton’s map and the coordinates of the burials of the York patrol, it was not long before a number of important finds were made around the location of a small stream.

The remains of a an American cartridge belt consisting of eight full clips of 30-06 ammunition, several loose live rounds and stripper clips, part of the brass cover for a field dressing container, and a pocket knife were discovered. In addition a button from an American tunic and mess utensils were found nearby.

When an article was located it was left in-situ, flagged or marked and then mapped using the GPS before being bagged and tagged.

The following day thanks to the generosity of the French department of Archaeology, a backhoe was brought in in an attempt to locate soil disturbance from the graves of the six American soldiers. The bodies had been recovered in stages after the war and taken to the American Meuse-Argonne cemetery, and in one instance, a soldier had been repatriated to the U.S.

This search had a negative result. However, at the same time as this search was being conducted, investigations continued by the side of the stream. This resulted in finding a bronze unit collar disc inscribed with the number “328′ crossed rifles and letter “G” that confirmed beyond any doubt the presence of members of York’s company at that site and probably belonged to one of the American casualties.

An American helmet was found on the other side of the stream and the base of a steep hill. This had a hole in the side probably caused by a bullet. It is interesting to note that records state that upon exhumation of one of the American casualties, he had received a wound to the left scapula.

The team then worked their way up a very steep hill. A number of interesting artifacts were found here.

Expended cartridge cases from the bolt action rifles used by both sides are ejected to the right and rear of the shooter. The point of impact of each ejected case creates a pattern pointing to the shooters position. In this case, the pattern of the ejected cases had been modified by the steep, forty percent slopes at the engagement site.

Ejected cases found by the group had been displaced down slope from their point of initial impact by the momentum of their ejection from the weapon and subsequently by overland precipitation flow. Consequently, the patterns created by recovered small arms ammunition can only provide a general location of the firing position of individual combatants.

However, the distribution and quantity of 30-06 cartridge cases (US) is consistent with the American accounts that state all members of the patrol fired several rounds when they first encountered the Germans on the side of the hill.

The investigation resolved that York’s squad moved part of the way up the hill to gather prisoners when the German machine-gun opened fire. Private Beardsley of York’s squad stated he took cover behind a tree about fifteen paces to the rear of York with Private Dymowski on one side and Private Wareing on the other. Both of these men were killed by the German machine-gun fire.

Beardsley saw York firing his pistol, and he said he also fired his pistol at least three times indicating that some privates as well as non-commissioned officers were armed with .45 caliber pistols.

Forty-four .45 caliber cartridge cases and four .45 caliber bullets recovered from the middle of the slope indicate the general positions of York and Beardsley.

Documentary evidence indicates York fired 21 pistol rounds and Beardsley three rounds. Evidently one or both men fired more .45 caliber bullets than reported. Major Buxton said that York fired 21 rounds from his pistol and 15 rounds from his rifle. Only four 30-06 cartridge cases were recovered in this area. This suggests York used his pistol more and rifle less than Buxton recorded.

A total of eight 30-06 cartridge cases and two empty 30-06 stripper clips were recovered from the flat area beside the stream.

This confirms that few surviving members of the patrol beside York engaged the German machine-gunners.

A total of eight 9mm cartridge cases were recovered in the vicinity of York’s firing position. York stated that a German officer among the prisoners fired a pistol at him but missed.

When this officer, Lt. Vollmer later surrendered his pistol to York, the magazine was empty. The 9mm cartridge cases provide confirmation that Vollmer fired his pistol at York before he surrendered.

A metal detecting search was carried out on the slope close to the summit and about 60 meters from York’s firing position.

A large number of intact and expended 7.92mm ammunition was found in one spot. From this the team determined that this had been the firing position of the German machine-gun that fired upon York’s patrol.

CONCLUSION:

It is interesting to note that very few German or American weapons were recovered. They consisted of two rifle bolts, three ersatz bayonets, and the remains of four stick grenades. One rifle bolt was from a Gewehr 98 and the other from the Gewehr 98b carbine carried by machine-gunners and sappers. A total of four empty bayonet scabbards or parts of scabbards were recovered. Nine entrenching tools and one scabbard were found.Twenty artifacts were associated with German gas masks, eighteen items associated with eating and drinking were found confirming that some of the Germans were eating when they were captured.

These articles were missed when the American salvage crews later swept the area.

The number of German items of equipment found on the side of the hill is indicative of a group of German soldiers involved in an act of surrender. To remove one’s rifle bolt is and throw it down shows total capitulation, It is safe to conclude through the abundance of evidence that a large number of Germans surrendered at that location, it also follows that an enormous quantity of arms, ammunition and equipment was removed later by battlefield salvage.

The Team concluded that the western side of Hill 223 was the site of the engagement that resulted in York being awarded the Medal of Honor. Whereas it is impossible to confirm or refute every statement by every participant in the documentary accounts based on the type and distribution of the artifacts; the degree of correlation between the documentary and physical evidence revealed by GIS can validate the interpretation of events.

FOOTNOTES:

French authorities have agreed to lay a historic trail. The ceremony will take place in August 2008 at Chatel-Chehery.

A bronze bust of York is being cast. It has been sculpted by a Tennessean doctor. This bust will be presented to the people of the village of Chatel-Chehery in October 2008 at a commemoration ceremony. A number of identical busts have been replicated and will be presented to various educational institutions in Tennessee.

Further evidence may become available after expended rounds found at the site have been forensically examined.

Michael Kelly. June 2008

Whilst Christians may suspect unsubstantiated claims surrounding the prophet Jesus Christ it is hard for most to get to the truth. Despite every effort to locate substantial evidence of his existence, outside of the bible, nothing stands up to scrutiny. My research, however, established that he never existed. His birth, life and death is based on ancient mythology dating from the Ice Age. The ideas surrounding such a being were stolen and used for power and control by a willful emperor.

Horror stories of hell and threats of eternal punishment await doubters and dissenters who dare question the establishment or their belief in Jesus Christ. Logic states, however, that with the size of the universe stretching almost to infinity it is impossible that a ‘man’ could be the creator of it. The ruse that the so-call ‘Son of God’ died as a criminal to save everyone is also a carry on from earlier beliefs.

Destruction of records, denial of religious origins and bluff by perpetrators behind the fraud effectively blinds and deafens us to the facts. This author, with full memory of reincarnation and of being between lives, unearthed irrefutable evidence to prove his nonexistence. In the same manner heaven and hell are shown to be mere strings of manipulation.

The mystical celestial kingdoms dominated by a male God extend from the prehistoric era when big men gained power and control. Kings emerged as gods on earth and rulers of the after-life. Their word was law and their actions taken as sanctioned by God.

So good is the deception from that time that men still trade their lives for promises of heavenly rewards. So it is with terrorists who seek martyrdom based on such myths.

An examination of cognitive progress based on linguistics, archeology and anthropology uncovered the divine being of antiquity as Mother god. Her three aspects of earth, sun and light was the first Trinity while the Sun was the main object of worship. She is the ‘eye’ in Egyptian iconography while her personification satisfied a belief that the sun came to earth.

Substantial research uncovered a ritual whereby men sought god ship by dying on the cross at dawn to marry ‘her’, the sun, in ‘her-o’, the origin of ‘hero’. Terms spawned from this act are records of thought patterns and behavior from the beginning of speech and found in language. They provide the crux for understanding the ancient religions, such as that of Egypt.

Linguistic roots highlight the past and demonstrate the passage of rituals and god men from one society to the next. The circle/cross symbol is iconified in Australia, the America’s, Asia, Africa and Europe. Sacred sites include mountain tops and the peaks of man made hills, pyramids, and ziggurats.

As new discoveries threatened religious beliefs and the credibility of the bible they were hidden by the more powerful. Galileo first noticed that the universe has depth and more planets and stars than previously considered. The light were not the souls of the dead so where is heaven?

Later Copernicus proved that the earth was not the center of the universe but merely one planet out of several that rotate around the sun His book was banned after publication following his death. The threat to heaven and hell was enormous and as people began to question the bible many were burned alive or otherwise tortured and murdered.

Darwin’s book on evolution was banned for a hundred years and to this day religious bodies insist on creation in 6 days as correct. The evidence, therefore, points to a conspiracy and cover up of the facts to protect the establishment which promotes heaven and hell, devil, angels and saints.

Armed with these facts plus memory of reincarnation and while delving into records never before seen confessions from the real authors of the New Testament came to light. The mysteries created by religious leaders to stop the curious from discovering the conspiracy surrounding Jesus Christ have been undone and the truth about the man described in the bible as 666 is finally out.

mom rox

Costa Rica, like many Latin American countries, buys a lot of oil from Hugo Chavez. Try almost 100% of the 18,000 barrels of crude that the country refines daily. Under current financial terms, this crude has to be paid for within 8 days. However, if Costa Rica joins in with Hugo Chavez sponsored “Petrocaribe” those terms could change drastically for the better. Petrocaribe is Chavez offer to countries of Central America and the Caribe to purchase oil on very favorable terms. They still have to purchase at market rates and if those rates exceed $100 per barrel, the favorable terms kick in. Specifically, the ability to finance the purchase of 60% of the price of the crude over 25 years at interest fixed at 1% (and with two years of grace). The remaining 40% of the price would be paid over 90 days. This would generate enormous savings that could be invested as Costa Rica chooses. A big debate is over what to do with this surplus.

That is what I like to call a “good problem.” A bigger problem in my opinion is whether to accept any such handouts from Hugo Chavez in the first place. Does this not allow Chavez, who has expressed dictatorial visions of grandeur, to get his hands around the throat of Costa Rica economically? Could this just be a ploy in his pursuit to become the czar of Latin America? Would it have been a good idea for France or Great Britain to have made such cozy deals with Hitler? Chavez is no Hitler, you might say, but are we sure about that? He has already been busy muzzling any negative press in his own country and rapidly passing laws giving himself control over every facet of Venezuela’s economy prior to the upcoming elections. Venezuela’s citizenry enjoy cheap oil, but the Chavez version of freedom offered to his people seems pretty “cheap” as well. The price of any debt incurred to Chavez may ultimately prove to be very expensive.

DEAD SEA SCROLLS: – Dr Norman Golb is a top scholar who makes a plea for the de-politicization of the Dead Sea Scrolls. His plea is not related to the current argument that Palestine will own or control the Scrolls but to the Generals and politicians who piecemeal and with apparent deceit are doling out access to these important documents for the examination of scholars. The original involvement of the Catholic scholars and the Scrolls being housed in a Museum named for the Rockefellers is of more concern to me. The management of the life of Jesus and his brother James (‘the Righteous) who led the group at Qumran that some are calling Essenes is why the concern exists for myself and others who know the ways of the Christologists. They have blamed the Jews for ‘killing our Saviour’.

The documents discovered at Dag (or Nag) Hammadi in the same decade were fully translated by 1971 and they are of equal if not greater insight. The life of Jesus as a ‘Therapeutae’ or Gnostic with a ‘Source’ of learning in a large family of adepts is contrary to all sorts of proselytes and his involvement of an equal partner and wife puts a lie to a lot of ‘only begotten’ or other Divine appellations sought by the Popes who have claimed to be the only representatives of the Lord on Earth. This ‘Source’ is described correctly by Barrett as the very Grail that the Dag Hammadi scrolls represent from the verbal tradition or Qabala. If you consider that there was no name or actual Christians at the time of Jesus we will be starting at a fair beginning. The Copper Scrolls that made coded references to the site of Solomon’s treasure were found here as well. That is of import to our continuing effort to know what trade and designs exist (ed) in the Templar to Benjaminite or Merovingian lineage. It is more important to start with this ‘Source’ as many Biblical scholars are calling it. They call it this rather than a pagan tradition of Bardic and nature worshippers or Phoenicians, as the Father of Biblical Archaeology assures us that even the Bible itself should be seen as being. We are of the opinion that all documents and related things that reflect on the life of Christ are part and parcel of the ‘Holy Grail’; and the churchians were crusading and killing to get them and control the truth that might upset their marketing and other plans. Thus we should provide a little proof of the actual religions and politics of the time that Jesus was alive upon this earth.

“The Bible imagines the religion of ancient Israel as purely monotheistic. And doubtless there were Israelites, particularly those associated with the Jerusalem Temple, who were strict monotheists. But the archaeological evidence (and the Bible, too, if you read it closely enough) suggests that the monotheism of many Israelites was far from pure. For them, Yahweh (the name of the Israelite god) was not the only divinity. Some Israelites believed that Yahweh had a female consort. And many Israelite invoked the divinity with the help of images {Remember Onias’ Temple in Egypt and the archaeology of the sacrificing of Ibises practiced by Moses and later Jews.}, particularly figurines. I call this Israelite religion pagan Yahwism.

The archaeological evidence we will look at comes mostly from Judah in what is known in archaeological terms as the Assyrian period, the span from 721 B.C.E., when the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, until 586 B.C.E., when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and brought an end to the Davidic dynasty in Judah. This period, to put it into perspective, is several centuries after King Solomon built the Jerusalem Temple {Actually done by an architect Mason from Tyre named Hiram but not the King of that name and time.} in about 950 B.C.E. So the archaeological evidence we are about to discuss documents a level of Israelite paganism long after Solomon built an exclusive home for Israel’s god. {The Incas and other used such techniques of social management rather than garrison armies in occupied territories.}

While Yahweh was the god of the Israelites, other nations had their own national gods. The chief god of the Phoenicians was Ba’al. For the Philistines, the chief god was at first Dagon {As noted earlier we suggested a Berber/Phoenician connection to Philistine. This Dagon is almost the same as the Dogon of West Africa who are early observers of Sirius the Dog Star. This is a Berber influence to be sure.} and later also Ba’al {He could mention Bel in Mesopotamia is the same as Ba’al but he is just developing the extensive similarity of the actual worship of people with different names within a gradually degrading or devolving ‘Brotherhood’. We can’t expect all of these things to be integrated all at once, can we?}(Judges 16:23; 2 Kings 1:2). For the Ammonites it was Milkom. For the Moabites {In Deuteronomy 23 you will see prejudice and hatred excluding them from the ‘House of the Lord’, ‘Yes, even unto the tenth generation’ along with ‘bastards’ and ‘he who is wounded in the stones’.}, Chemosh. For the Edomites, Qos. And for the Israelites and Judahites — Yahweh. Except for the Edomite god Qos, who appears only in the archaeological record, all of these gods are mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings 11:5, 7, 33).

Interestingly, while each nation’s chief god had a distinctive name, his consort, the chief female deity, had the same name in all these cultures: Asherah or its variants Ashtoreth or Astarte. (As we shall see, this was even true of Yahweh’s consort.)

Not only was the female consort the same, the various nations used the same cult objects, the same types if incense altars made of stone and clay, the same bronze and clay censers, cult stands and incense burners, the same chalices and goblets and the same bronze and ivory rods adorned with pomegranates. It was easy to take cult vessels of one deity and place them in the service of another one–and this was commonly done. For example, in the ninth-century B.C.E., stela erected by Mesha, the king of Moab, he describes himself as the ‘son of Chemosh,’ and tells how he defeated the Israelites (see also 2 Kings 3:4-27). He then brags,’(I) took t(he ves)sels of Yahweh, and I hauled them before the face of Chemosh.’

We sometimes get the impression that after Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, Yahweh had no other sanctuary in ancient Israel — but this is not the case.” (1)

It is possible that the prevalence of the ‘one god’ was actually a one goddess as we see in the fact they all worshipped one similarly named(identical really)goddess. The reality as we see it was almost the same for Ba’al in this period as well. He goes on to show these multiple and pantheistic practices seem to disappear when the exiles are returned from Persia, so maybe Cyrus and Zoroaster were able to convince them of the error of their ways and we might see what many have pondered in regards to the magi of Zoroaster being a major influence on Christianity in the original foundations and not the more ritualistic Moses. At Qumran many scholars note the people called themselves ‘Covenanters of the Law’. Most of them note this law was Mosaic but my perception is different and I believe it was a syncretism akin to Gnosticism and with many adept understandings such as the healing practices of the Therapeutae. Golb makes it clear he is on the side of the Qumran library having been a collection of all the factions of religion and practices in a large area even beyond Judaea. The Roman practice of destroying all literature and writing new ones around old beliefs which were in line with their approaches was the reason for this, and all tribes, zealots or cults knew it.

The henges of the Emerald Isles which were once wood as some are seeing today, are in the Negev and Sinai deserts as well. The ‘Bedouin’ (‘tent dweller’) fiction is not the root as we showed from the scholars of the excellent book Carthage. The article following the one just quoted from Biblical Archaeology Review says this:

“Take even a one- or two-day trip through the Sinai or Negev deserts and you’ll come across scores of them–standing stones erected in a variety of combinations. These stone installations may help us understand the very origins of Israelite religion.” (2)

Last year the word about pre-hieroglyphic alphabets in the Sahara were accompanied by more on the agricultural savannah people who had henges too. This is where the Berbers were from and the connection if no simple chance occurrence. The article goes on to discuss ‘fertility triads’ and whenever you see triad or troad (Greek) you are looking at the central laws of the philosophic Kelts. These parables of process and moral or spiritual concepts are a wealth of insight to this very day. The Triune Nature of Man that was plagiarized into the ‘Holy Trinity’ and raised to a deity took more of man’s self awareness and divinity away from humanity than any of us can imagine. A central theme in the Dead Sea Scrolls is said to be very Zoroastrian in nature (and the Mani attempt to join Christianity and it in one ecumenical religion that Augustine was a promoter of until bought out by the Catholics); – it is simply this: ‘There are two spirits ‘truth and error’. We surely see the real original sin of the Gnostics who saved the Dag Hammadi Scrolls and gave their lives protecting the Library of Alexandria in this. These people who were with the Cathars a millennium later say ‘The original sin that separates us from God – is IGNORANCE!’

Another culture that really worshipped this goddess at one time is the Greek or Hellenic culture of Dionysius and Aphrodite as we see a practice that was at work while Yahweh became the one and sole male god Jehovah and that development was not mentioned in BAR.

“In Cyprus it appears that before marriage all women were formerly obliged by custom to prostitute themselves to strangers at the sanctuary of the goddess, whether she went by the name of Aphrodite, Astarte, or what not. Similar customs prevailed in many parts of Western Asia.” (3)

Casting aspersions on great thinkers like Augustine is easy and I don’t want any readers to think I’m saying these things without basis in fact. We have his own book to work with in that regard. Here is a little from Augustine’s autobiography called Confessions.

“As literature, the Scriptures compared poorly with the polished prose of Cicero and he thought them fit only for the simple minded.” That was when he was a Manichean before “the mercy of God had saved him from this evil.” (4)