A'ali: Memories of Eden

A'ali

The Middle East

      In the heart of the region that we call the Middle East lies the Persian Gulf.

The Persian Gulf in the Middle East

     Within the Persian Gulf, on the western shore, tucked between the peninsula of Qatar and the shoreline of Saudi Arabia.....

The island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf in the Middle East

 ...lies the little island kingdom of Bahrain.

A closer view of the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf in the Middle East

      The kingdom of Bahrain is one of the first of the Arab oil producing nations.  It is, as it has been throughout historical times, also an excellent natural port.  It currently also dabbles in banking and tourism, but is known for little else beside a harshly repressive constitutional monarchy.

     This was not always so. 

     Interestingly, archaeology and legend complement each other here.  Bahrain has been known since ancient times as "the island of the dead."  The northern part of the island, around the town of A'ali, is covered with over 170,000 burial mounds. 

     This estimate is changing as more mounds are found and, confusingly, more are destroyed by the building plans of the current government.  In the words of their kind and sensitive officials, "They're not Muslim graves, so why should we care?"

Aerial view of the northern plain, near the town of A'ali, on the Island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf in the Middle East.  All of those dots that you see are burial mounds.

Mounds like this.....

 

...and this...

....and this.

      Sumerian records identify this island with the kingdom known as Dilmun, "country of the rising sun, center of earthly paradise and the only region to survive the Flood (sic)." Archaeology has found evidence (buildings, pottery, statues) of this kingdom.  On nearby islands and on the Arabian coast are many evidences of the same civilization, some even older than the ones on Bahrain.
     The kingdom of Dilmun was apparently trading with both the Indus River Valley civilization (Mohenjo-Daro, Harrapa, Kot Diji, Mehrgahr and Lothal, in modern day Pakistan, which we have discussed in my first blog entry) and the Mesopotamian culture (Sumerians, who lived in the region that we now call Iraq).  This makes them co-existent with the oldest civilizations known to us and no doubt conversant in all the science, knowledge and culture that these people had.

     That makes what is in the burial mounds more intriguing.  When the mounds were opened, beside the skeletal remains, there were the usual grave goods that people have included since time immemorial - pots and vessels that held food and drink, jewelry and other personal items.

     In large numbers of the graves, though, carefully arranged and preserved, are the skeletons of large venomous snakes.  Why would you put a venomous snake in the grave of someone that you were trying to help through the afterlife, someone that you loved and respected?

    

CEM Museum in Glen Rose, Texas, USA.

Dr. Carl Baugh, director of CEM, standing beside the small hyperbaric chamber, holding a small ecosystem, which includes....

     A clue may be found in the small Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, TX, USA.  There, Dr. Carl Baugh has been attempting to reproduce environmental conditions that his theoretical models say existed in a pre-Flood environment.

     We have discussed these conditions in my first blog, but let me summarize here.  His research, and the research of other scientists, many of whom are devout materialistic uniformitarians, indicate that, in the Pre-Flood environment,  the atmospheric pressure was twice what it is today, that the oxygen level was at 30% instead of today's 14% and that the magnetic field of the earth was very much stronger than it is today. 

     (I recommend checking out their website.  It's very professional and informative.  http://www.creationevidence.org/)

....a living Copperhead snake.

     To reproduce this pre-Flood environment, a hyperbaric chamber was filled with plants and animals, including a copperhead snake.  Then the chamber was pressurized to two atmospheres and the oxygen level was raised to 30%.  Magnetic coils were also wrapped around the chamber to intensify the magnetic field to a level approximating the magnetic field of the Pre-Flood world.  One of the areas of inquiry was to determine the effect, if any, this environment had on various functions of the snake, including the production of venom.

     When samples of the venom were taken and examined, even microscopic examination clearly showed that the venom had been dramatically altered.  The protein crystals in an unaltered snake's venom, when seen under a microscope, are haphazard, like a pile of jackstraws that have been thrown in a pile.  The venom of the snake in the hyperbaric chamber had crystals that were rigidly organized, like bricks, layer upon layer.

     Medical experts that were shown this venom were very excited about the medicinal possibilities and research is on-going.  The medical field already uses snake venom for a variety of useful medications and therapies, even though it is a poison. 

     The Bible, in Genesis, tells us that Adam and Eve were not afraid of a snake in a pre-Flood environment.  The Biblical book of Isaiah, chapter 11, verse 8, talks about what the earth will be like when God reconstructs it as He originally meant for it to be.  Part of that description says, "The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den."  Again, in the pre-Flood environment, snakes were nothing to be feared.

      The people of the Dilmun kingdom probably lived within a few years of the Flood.  We know from the Biblical record that it took some time for the gradually weakening atmosphere and magnetic field to change things.  We see this in the Biblical genealogies.  They show that the lifespans of people before the Flood (which nearly reached 1,000 years routinely), became shorter and shorter as the atmosphere became poorer in oxygen and the magnetic field grew weaker.

    In the time of Dilmun, perhaps those effects had only begun.  Perhaps, in that time, serpents were seen as helpful, perhaps even medicinal creatures.  Perhaps they were something that you would give to a loved one to supply them with medicine, as we would give someone on a journey a first-aid kit.

     I think that the evidence seems to point that way.  What do you think?

WARNING!!

This blog has been written with the sole purpose of using the ample evidence available to verify and support the biblical record, while refuting the copious propaganda that is shoved down our throats daily by materialistic uniformitarians.

It is my contention that the Bible describes God's original creation of people with extraordinary capabilities who subsequently built an advanced civilization that exceeds our own. That civilization was destroyed in the Great Flood and we have spent the last 5,000 years trying to re-build that civilization and to re-gain those capabilities. I contend that science supports all this in multiple disciplines, but this information is ignored or suppressed by various people who have an opposing agenda.

Nothing that you see on this blog is original. Any fact that you see here is obtainable on a dozen different websites and books. I use these facts and photos, without violating their copyrights, under the legal principle of fair use practice. That is, I use them one time, for educational purposes only.
 

The point is, nothing here is made up. The only thing that I do (or need to do) is assemble this information in a discernible pattern.
 

You might want to read through the first entry posted on this blog (Past Remembering: Thoughts toward a coherent view of our ancient past, our present and our future) in order to understand my theoretical and theological underpinnings more clearly.

     The truth is there. You just have to see it.  

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 (NASB)

That which has been is that which will be,

And that which has been done is that which will be done.

So there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there anything of which one might say,

“See this, it is new”?

Already it has existed for ages

Which were before us.