[TheForge] How tongs came to be (Talmud)

[Bruce Freeman]

Quoting from that page:

"However, as the Talmud explains it, Rabbi Judah's
reasoning was based on much more prosaic and rational
considerations. When a blacksmith fashions a pair of
tongs in the forge, the only way he can handle the
red-hot metal is with tongs. Since we are speaking of
the manufacture of the first pair of tongs, this
possibility did not exist. Ergo, the first pair must
have been provided directly by the Creator himself.

"Indeed, the argument sounds irrefutable."

Ummm, ah... It doesn't sound irrefutable to me!  Any
of us on this list can see right through that
argument.  Indeed, there's no need at all to use tongs
for making tongs.  One can easily work one end of an
iron rod at a red heat while holding the other end in
your unprotected hand.

Of course, those who attribute all to a Creator (as
opposed to a creator, w/o capital C) would simply back
up one notch and apply the same argument to the hammer
or anvil.

If there be a god, she is embodied in us all.  Man
created technology, from the cleaving of flint,
through the smelting of iron (and what genius that
must have taken!) through modern technology. 
Attributing  all this to a god is as illogical as
declaring the impossibility of a computer to boot
itself up.  (Wait!  Maybe God intervenes every time a
computer boots up!)

Sorry if this sounds sacreligious.  I don't disrespect
religious people, just some of the nonsense they
expect the rest of us to believe.

Bruce
OR/NJ

--- Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com> wrote:

> http://www.macabeeknives.com/articles/tong.html
> 
> 
> -- 
> Saint Phlip

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