[Obadiah]

I don’t agree with this, but it’s also a how-many-angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin type of issue.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“I don’t agree with this, but it’s also a how-many-angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin type of issue.”

Two points:

1) There is no evidence anyone actually EVER argued over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. It may very well be a pious Protestant fraud from the Anglican divine named Chillingworth.

2) As a professor once pointed out to me: If the argument ever took place, it would actually be an important and useful way to explain the philosophical and scientific considerations about space and matter. Can an incorporeal being, or many incorporeal beings, occupy physical space in the physical world? Angels certainly seem to have done so according to descriptions in the Bible, but how exactly does that work out in the relationship between the corporeal and incorporeal? This sort of disputation was important for the development of arguments and theories related to optics, matter, etc.

[Mr Rogers]

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1008/did-medieval-scholars-argue-over-how-many-angels-could-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin

I believe Erasmus and More both were among those who ridiculed the theological discussions of some medieval doctors.