Scientist: Angels Can't Fly

Don't even bother asking about fairies
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 23, 2009 1:42 AM CST

A British scientist has become a real Debbie Downer for angel fans with his pronouncement that the heavenly creatures as depicted in art would never get off the ground. Flight is simply not in the stars, given their human bodies and bird-like wings. “Even a cursory examination of the evidence in representational arts shows that angels and cherubs cannot take off and cannot use powered flight,” declared London Professor Roger Wotton. Even to glide, the angels "would need to be exposed to very high wind velocities."

The angels lack the light body frames that allow birds to fly, and in fact are often depicted as chubby babies with tiny wings which could not support them in flight. Angels also lack the muscle development they would need to fly, reports the Telegraph. A recent study by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life found that 68% of 36,000 adults polled believe that angels and demons are at work in the world. Don't even bother arguing about fairies. “For sure, fairies don’t fly," said Wotton.
(More Angels & Demons stories.)

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