[TheForge] How tongs came to be (Talmud)

[Bruce Freeman]

Phlip,

I know YOU meant no ill by your posting, but (as many
on this list have probably noticed already) I am not
one to let untruths stand.  And saying you need tongs
to make tongs is an obvious untruth.

Such untruths are not lies, but merely the products of
ignorance.  If certain types of people would get off
their duffs and TRY things, then they'd dispel their
own ignorance.

Am I overstating the matter?  I think not.  Over the
past few years I have been reading the history of
technology.  It's fascinating.  All along the road of
human existence, genius has occurred again and again. 
Although we will never know the true story of such
invention, the fact of it is apparent.

I despise authors who claim such things as "cooking
was invented when man dropped meat in a fire."  
Bullshit!  Yes, the intersection of food and fire MAY
have been accidental at first, but cooking was
invented when man (or his ape ancestor - who know?)
OBSERVED the effects of fire on food.  

It is applied intellegence that differentiates man
from animals.  It is the suppression of free exercise
of intellegence that differentiates the religious
zealot from man.

Bruce
OR/NJ

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

> On 9/4/06, Bruce Freeman <freemab222 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > 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
> 
> Ah, now Bruce, you're taking it too seriously ;-) I
> sent it along
> because I thought it was a rather lovely story, akin
> to tales about
> how other aspects of our world came to be,
> regardless of the culture
> telling the story.
> 
> As far as the original hammer and anvil, as I
> understand it, in many
> primitive cultures, a rock makes a good anvil, as a
> rock makes a
> useable hammer. And, tongs can be made from wet,
> green sticks- very
> short lived, but none the less functional. As for a
> hot fire, a fire,
> a pit, and a blowpipe will work.
> 
> Much as we effete moderns try to pretend it isn't
> so, our modern
> technology merely gives us the capacity to do things
> more efficiently
> if we use it right. The capacity to do things in the
> first place comes
> from within.
> 
> Or, have you never seen the expression on the face
> of a newbie on the
> forge, having made hir first project, when the light
> hits, they look
> at what they've made, and discover, "I can DO
> this!!!" ?
> 
> -- 
> Saint Phlip
> 
> Heat it up
> Hit it hard
> Repent as necessary.
> 
> Has anyone seen my temper?
> I seem to have misplaced it at Stalag XXXV....
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