500words

Idols - images or representations of god used as objects of worship, have been revered, talked about, written about and noted as evident through ancient manuscripts and the Bible.   Of course there is no way to actually determine a date that we would recognise when this type of worship started – although the earliest understood use comes from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, dated from the millennium BCE (when even is that?) Idolaters are those who worship an idol or idols.   In its original definition, idolatry was where the subject of worship was seen as more important than God (the term ‘God’ being used here as a term that identifies the highest power in a religion) – a physical manifestation of worship, something that absorbed the heart and imagination more than God.   God of course isn’t physical, hence the choice to believe or not in his existence.     Through the Bible, the word of God s smart enough to call out that any other form of worship was in fa...

In the old testament, amongst the forging of Judeo-Christianity and the values upon which it rests, the case is clear from the commencement: God will not be pleased if you kneel for anyone else. The Book of Exodus is quick to denounce all sorts of things in the Ten Commandments and ‘you shall have no other gods before me’ beats all other nine to Number 1. Believing in or placing anything higher than god is idolatry. Since then many people have chosen to ignore this decree. There were already a lot of idols doing the rounds; subsequently, people have put many things before God, both animate and inanimate, real or imagined, physical and spiritual. It all seems to hinge around the act of worship, be that religious or otherwise. Humans discovered that, if pursued with fervour, idolatry can potentially fill up a whole day or indeed, a lifetime. The Nordic religion, Paganism and Hinduism all do an excellent deity. Yes, the statuesque but consider also the religious artefact; even fragments o...

  Idols An Idol is an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.   The golden calf was an idol of the Israelites who, according to the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, and backed by archaeology, left Egypt in the 13 th century BC   in the reign of the Pharaoh Ramses II.   During their 40 years wandering in the desert, their leader Moses left them for 40 days and 40 nights to go up Mount Sinai and seek inspiration from God.   God gave him stone tablets inscribed with the ten commandments.   The number 40 is used in both the Bible and the Koran to indicate a long period of time.   (Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness.   Muhammad was 40 when the Quran was revealed to him). The Israelites, left without a leader, feared that Moses would not return.   They asked Aaron, who was Moses’ elder brother to make them a god.   He melted all their gold and jewellery and constructed a golden calf saying   “This is thy...

An abode, a place called home; one’s property or where one resides, be that temporarily or more permanent. A dwelling is defined as a self-contained 'substantial' unit of accommodation that takes numerous forms but which cannot be constructed from cloth, a tepee, for instance, being considered insubstantial. Social beings that they are, humans have long clustered said dwellings. The Saxons liked a cluster, and across England dwellings began to extend across and bridge together fields, creating the first neighbour, or "one who lives near another," Middle English neighebor, from Old English neahgebur (West Saxon), nehebur (Anglian) "one who dwells nearby”. There were many reasons to make friends with the people down the lane, or across the field. Procreation beyond one’s immediate family was important, and sometimes getting help with the hunt made for more wild boar sausages, which in turn could be ‘sold’ or exchanged. Advanced negotiators could barter many sausa...

  Dwellings of Native North American Peoples Nomadic people crossed the land bridge from Asia to Alaska more than 12,000 year ago.   When the fist European adventurers arrived in North America in the 15 th Century   there were more than 10 million people already living there Each group of people, generally referred to as a tribe, needed a type of dwelling to suit the climate and environment of their area. From the desert areas of Arizona with temperatures up to 120’F to the cold tundra of Alaska where -50’F is not unusual.   Not only the environment but the tribe’s culture dictated the general type of dwelling needed.   Some tribes were agricultural, living in settled villages and farming the land, they needed houses that would last for a long time.   Others were nomadic, moving from place to place as they hunted and gathered food and resources, they needed houses that were portable and easy to move. There are 10 different climatic areas in North Ame...

The Oireachtas is the legislature of Ireland. The Oireachtas includes the President of Ireland, currently Michael D. Higgins, Teachta Dála (TD) for Galway West, and the two houses of the Oireachtas, which are Dáil Éireann (the lower house) and Seanad Éireann (the upper house). These two houses sit in Leinster House, which is situated on Kildare Street in Dublin, between the National Library and the National Museum of Archaeology. Leinster House (Teach Laighean in Irish) was designed by the architect Richard Cassels, and was built in 1745 by James Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare. The house was initially named Kildare House but, when the Earl was named the first Duke of Leinster in 1766, it was renamed Leinster House. The Earl deliberately built the house in the south side of Dublin, far from the other aristocratic residences of the time, which were mostly located north of the Liffey in areas such as Parnell Square and Mountjoy Square. The size and status of the house were unmatched in D...

    Troglodytes: then and now   The word troglodyte, a human cave dweller, is from the Greek “trogle (hole) and “dyein” (go in).  When first thinking of cave dwellers I imagined prehistoric people - the stereotypical caveman – but only a small portion of humanity has ever dwelt in caves.  They tend to be cold, dark, damp and inhospitable.  In prehistoric times cave bears, cave lions and giant cave hyenas inhabited them – the reason why these creatures were given their names! The first troglodytes: The Grotte du Vallonnet, in France, was  used  by “cavemen” approximately 1 million years ago.  Remains of stone tools and animals were found but no indication that people actually lived there. A cave system in Beijing was inhabited by various types of humans from c750,000 years ago (or c530,000 years, depending what you read).  Excavations uncovered hundreds of stone tools and the skulls and bones of Peking Man, Homo erectus and mode...