[TheForge] How tongs came to be (Talmud)

[debmiller at fuse.net]

AMEN BROTHER!!!

Ray
Cincinnati



---- Bruce Freeman <freemab222 at yahoo.com> wrote: 
> 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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