So, How Many Smegging Angels CAN Dance on the Head of a Pin?

Grr...edit function not working...so I replace my first post with this

Hmm, my guess, there is not a lot to amuse the angels these days, being immortal and all, so seeing how many can dance on the head of a pin is probably akin to the wacky 'how many frat boys can fit into a phonebooth' antics of the '50s and '60s.

I think that is a very dangerous activity and no angel would do it! What if she slips? Oh nooo, no longer an angel?

I thought angels were sexless...at least, lacking genitals, like Barbie and Ken...

None- they are all Baptists.

Funny, Equus!

Methinks some of you have too much time on your hands...

Here is a lovely poem that Debacle sent me once - it is sort of on topic - sadly, the author's name has been lost in my copying process:

Questions About Angels

Of all the questions you might want to ask
about angels, the only one you ever hear
is how many can dance on the head of a pin.

No curiosity about how they pass the eternal time
besides circling the Throne chanting in Latin
or delivering a crust of bread to a hermit on earth
or guiding a boy and girl across a rickety wooden bridge.

Do they fly through God's body and come out singing?
Do they swing like children from the hinges
of the spirit world saying their names backwards and
forwards?
Do they sit alone in little gardens changing colors?

What about their sleeping habits, the fabric of their robes,
their diet of unfiltered divine light?
What goes on inside their luminous heads? Is there a wall
these tall presences can look over and see hell?

If an angel fell off a cloud, would he leave a hole
in a river and would the hole float along endlessly
filled with the silent letters of every angelic word?

If an angel delivered the mail, would he arrive
in a blinding rush of wings or would he just assume
the appearance of the regular mailman and
whistle up the driveway reading the postcards?

No, the medieval theologians control the court.
The only question you ever hear is about
the little dance floor on the head of a pin
where halos are meant to converge and drift invisibly.

It is designed to make us think of millions,
billions, to make us run out of numbers and collapse
into infinity, but perhaps the answer is simply one:
one female angel dancing alone in her stocking feet,
a small jazz combo working in the background.

She sways like a branch in the wind, her beautiful
eyes closed, and the tall thin bassist leans over
to glance at his watch because she has been dancing
forever, and now it is very late, even for musicians.

Heeven - I think thay are not made of ordinary matter! If the worst occurred, I believe their "airy substance" (as Pope called the material of which his guardian sylphs were made in "The Rape of the Lock") would but part, and "soon unite(s) again.

can the ineffable fall?

Well, if by "angels" you mean "bacteria," go ahead and give it a count...

Do they dance for joy, or boredom, or in ecstasy?

right equus sexless....baptists.... a rose by any other name....

Q: Why don't Baptists have sex standing up?

A: They don't want Jesus to think they're dancing....

an oldie but a goodie.

(damn, he beat me to it.)

I came, I saw, I kept silent...

Or the Paul Reuben's version of the story...

"I saw, I came, I have the right to remain silent..."

hee hee - actually, I am such a smart arse that the baptist joke is, by implication, in the poll - in reverse order!

Last I heard, angels were not only right, but also acute, obtuse and straight. Quite a community up there in heaven! Heh heh, acute angel...

Hmmmmmmm - there's geometry in heaven, then?

But, is not geometry, by its very name, an earthbound thing?

Is not math in general the true cornerstone of an ordered universe that could only be created by a higher power? Are not our puny efforts to understand math in earth terms just a reflection of how little we actually understand about heaven, and God's great plan? HA! Take that bunny! Joshing, of course. Actually, I think the universe is not so much ordered as it is in a state of constant flux...any theoretical physicists out there?

huh. you'd probably like this "variable speed of light" guy...

http://www.discover.com/apr_03/featspeed.html

(yeah, i read the heavy journals...)