From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!cw
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Angels Dancing
Article-I.D.: eagle.433
Posted: Sat Jul 31 10:38:36 1982
Received: Sun Aug  1 01:16:40 1982
References: watmath.3143


A comment on a commonly used phrase to denote an argument that is 
simultaneously abstruse, theological, and irrelevant:

	How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Modern folk (myself included until a few days ago) tend to think that this
phrase refers to scholastic and silly discussions about exact size of angels.
On the contrary, it refers to a much more serious problem (at least in the
minds of medaevial (sp? I haven't got a dictionary nearby) thinkers.  The
problem should be stated

	Can a finite or an infinite number of angels dance on the head of
	a pin/

Now the discussion is concerned with whether angels are corporeal or
incorporeal and this in turn has serious implications on the nature
of heaven, the nature of the afterlife, whether we retain our bodies
after the resurrection, and so on.  It may also have some effect on the
size of heaven and the universe and on the power of God to create
infinite things (which, according to Zeno, should take infinite time).
This is obviously a much deeped discussion if you are a believer in
Christianity (as all the western philosophers who mattered were when
this was a hot topic).  It's not too different from a similar argument
about whether the body of Christ actually enters the communion wafer
during Mass, a question which vague memory suggests has been so
seriously debated as to lead to at least small wars.

Of course, you may not care, but do not on that account unnecessarily
denigrate the best efforts of intelligent people to understand their
universe according to their own lights.

Charles