Re: CHAT: Religions (was: Visible planets)

Staving Andreas Johansson:
>Quoting John Cowan <jcowan@...>:
>
> > the
> > belief that exactly 1,114,111 angels can dance on the head of a pin
>
>Is that a figure pulled out of thin air, or did anyone arrive at it by some
>understandable reasoning? I'm aware that the question of how many angels can
>dance on a pin has been discussed seriously, but can't recall seeing an actual
>answer anywhere before.
The question, if it were ever posed seriously and not merely a parody of
Scholastic debates, was about whether the number was finite or infinite. As
the prevailing view was that angels are entirely spiritual beings, the
latter answer is generally accepted, since there is no need for an angel to
occupy a finite volume of space. However, they probably have better things
to do.

One interesting consequence of angels being purely spiritual beings,
according to Aquinas, is that every angel is a unique species. This is
because in Aquinas' theories, form defines a species and matter the
individual within that species. Therefore, if angels do not possess matter,
in order to be individuals each must have a unique form. This, of course,
explains why the descriptions of angels in Ezekiel are so weird, which in
turn explains why the first thing an angel says on manifesting itself to a
human is "Fear not."

Pete