Posted on 12/22/2009 6:30:54 PM PST by JoeProBono
LONDON, A London scientist has authored a paper arguing angels as classically depicted, mostly-human forms with wings, would be unable to fly.
Professor Roger Wotton of University College London wrote in his paper, which was published by the school's Opticon magazine, that human-appearing angels with feathered bird-like wings would not be able to use the wings for flight, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.
"Even a cursory examination of the evidence in representational arts shows that angels and cherubs cannot take off and cannot use powered flight," Wotton wrote. "And even if they used gliding flight, they would need to be exposed to very high wind velocities at take off -- such high winds that they would be blown away and have no need for wings."
Wotton's paper also took aim at fantasy depictions of fairies with the wings of butterflies.
"The distortion of the thorax needed for flight in fairies with butterfly wings would be exceedingly uncomfortable," the paper read. "For sure, fairies don't fly."
According to ‘scientists’ bumblebees shouldn’t fly either.
And what angels do is more a teleportation, hovering, time travel kinda thing.
Maybe his guardian angel is a lazy fat ass but mine has managed to fly fast enough to keep my stupid butt alive.
Well yes, but we like dogs and we dance fairly well.
Yep. Good example. That’s exactly the kind of impossible anatomy I was talking about.
nice toes on him too, btw.
As my high school science teacher once said,”with the small size of their wings in relation to their bodies,bees shouldn’t be able to fly”....
Yo Mr. Science Guy ... your same computer models say that the BUMBLEBEE cannot fly either...
This is a well known problem in flight of dragons. A large reptile would need far more wing surface and power than some human-sized angel. There are several solutions. One simply defines dragons as magical creatures, and therefore science doesn’t apply to them. Another method gives dragons control over gravity. I even read about beasts that have control over time.
If the Golden Gate Bridge is any indication, they drop like a rock.
Great minds think alike.....(mine was just a little slower!)
That’ll teach me to read through ALL the comments first! :)
What’s he say about reindeer?
I can’t figure out where anyone ever got the idea that angels were kind of androgenous humanoids with white wings, or worse yet, cute obese little babies. Often the first thing an angel says to a human in the Bible is: “Fear not,” because their physical appearance is terrifying. They are powerful and potentially deadly.
Now I have to go stare at Helen Thomas's ugly mugshots to get that image out of my head.
Unfortunately, Satan and his angels can fly like b*stards!
They don’t obey no laws - especially not of physics!
Exactly. Of course they can't actually "FLY", but that's because they have NO BODIES, not because their wings are too small.
The one angel I saw didn’t fly... she wafted.
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