I think it's time we brought back this debate from out of the loneliness of a long forgotten history. St. Thomas Aquinas (c1200) once spent much time thinking about this important question, and now that the question of whether Creationism (or the sugar-coated, Intelligent Design) is responsible for human existence has been readdressed, i think it's appropriate to reconsider this question of quantifying angels on the head of a pin.
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The real question here is...18% Voted for by ennoia, strawberry gashes, ExpensiveThinker, DryIce808, petethemeat.
How many pins can you fit into the head of St. Thomas Aquinas?
(The man was *not* a philosopher!
I don't like him.) -
Hmm..theres a deeper question here7% Voted for by AjkKilroy, thebilld69.
Though far be from me to bring science into a theology debate, I must ask this: what would happen if a large number of angels were to congregate on a pin as you say. Wouldnt such a large collective of angelic energy then cuase an outbreak of evil some where else? Therefore this point is moot, despite how many can fit, they cannot, in order to keep the balance of good and evil. They should have never been on the pin in the first place, its just silly.
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The question doesn't follow7% Voted for by Lou Montagne, Bannockburn.
Listen guys, have any of you actually got a clue concerning philosophy? I mean real philosophy insofar as reading academic philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Mills, , Marx, Negri, Nietzsche, Hegel, Hume, Locke, etc? I mean real philosophy, no your Dr. Phil garbage.
Okay simple answer. In order for one to fit an “angel” on a head of a pin, an “angel” would have to be a material corporeal body, hence would have a substance of mass, with extension, figure, shape, width, depth, etc. However, an angel, is defined as a incorporeal entity lacking in substance, hence no shape, figure, extension, etc. It is a “spirit” which is no material. Thus, you can't “fit” any angel's on a pin simply because that would conclude that an angel is somehow material and thus would be a contradiction. Hence, your question to say the least is say...not a question.
This also goes with all your little “ghosts” “spirits” “souls” and “gods” Answer this small question for me. How can you see an immaterial entity when eyes can only perceive the material?
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...7% Voted for by RothMcVeReagan, footballfan385.
1,000 angels can fit on the head of a pin, that's written somewhere in the bible, i'm not exactly sure where, but it means they can do anything, be anywhere, and everywhere, etc.
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(-inf., inf.)7% Voted for by GM Akari Takai, Embers of Elm.
It depends on the size of the pin, and the size of the angel at the time.
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pin size...Voted for by AjkKilroy.
i think an even more compelling question is how big is the head of a pin?
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OneVoted for by ExpensiveThinker.
This is a reasonable estimate, either the pin is too small or the angel is too big.
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1000Voted for by RothMcVeReagan.
no one knows the answer to this...i barely believe in god and i know...1000 angels can fit on the head of a pin...
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AlrightVoted for by footballfan385.
Alrighty, maybe I really don't know enough about this. Someone please explain to me how one can propose this question. What the heck does it mean? The head of a pin, 1000 angels can fit on it, how does anyone come up with these answers? Read my responses and then tell me what I did wrong or answer my questions cuz this confused me. -Steve
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More than 10Voted for by ExpensiveThinker.
I can't fathom this many angels on such a small surface, but I want to leave the possibility.
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None, to as many as we can agree upon.Voted for by Lou Montagne.
One for the question. Two for my answer, and a third one from the next person who comes along,.. and so on.
But seriously; Human existence! Who is responsible? Existence! Who?
Darwinian Evolution is based on the catalogisation of species. It is not a theory as such because it has little to no predictive value. It also doesn't explain in any way why there are humans. So no Creationist needs to feel threatened by evolution. On the other hand, one could feel threatened by the notion that the more complex species also seem to have a shorter time span to exist. On a third hand, man might just be the creature with that special mind that can figure out how to keep on existing when the human species dies out.
Ask your self, what defines us as humans beings? Is it our body, or is it our mind? Our combined knowledge is already making it feasible that we could learn to transfer our mind on to self propagating and more durable machines, and thus extend ourselves beyond the time slot for our species.
In a sense an other way to go to heaven?
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x where 1 < x < 10Voted for by ExpensiveThinker.
Somewhere from 2..10 angels on the head of a pin. Please describe how you have them arranged: symmetrically, skewed, etc.
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Well...Voted for by Chaos Reclaimed.
Im more interested on how many angels could fit on the sharp end. :/
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The real question isVoted for by lordmonkey.
How many pins can be balanced on the head of an angel (point-down)?
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And people are actually responding to this?Voted for by DryIce808.
This debate wreaks of sarcasm on one side and ignorance on the other. I love it.
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Doesn't really make sense to me..It kind of seems like your using logic that doesn't fit together. Just like the question, "Can god create a boulder so heavy he cant lift it?"Voted for by Hardhittn63.
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How many Universes Can fit on the Head of a Pin?With the singularity conjecture positing an initial universe size before the inflaton of less than the plank dimension, comparatively at that relative size trillions and trillions of human sized angels could exists as citizens of pin-head-topia if they kept the size given if existing at an earlier phase of the Universe. Angels as trans-temporal beings unsubject to spatial and time constants would be in an expansive space-time field such as this universe without being tied down to the local relative spatial-time dimensions that provide the comparative or relative scalar field coordinates.Voted for by GaryCGibson.
The universe as a scalar field expanding in directions of space-time is an interesting way to look at it. The size of a pin head would be fairly substantial in one paradigm regarding the Universe, and small in others.
The head of a pin could contain millions of singularity sized universes if the weight, gravity and other quantum charactersitics were not a problems. Since gravity doesn't exist apart from an expanded unified field probably, it may not be a problem.
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