Author Topic: Why do we have ten fingers?  (Read 30252 times)

Tina

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #15 on: July 03, 2011, 09:54:54 AM »
Ah yeah it would be, would it in. Fellow piano player? Unfortunately I think the 6th finger tends to be rather useless and limp (I have seen a picture of it).

Having always been a beginner  :(

Do you walk/stand? :P

Yes, but not on toes. Only ballet dancers do that.  ;D

John Roth

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #16 on: July 03, 2011, 03:05:46 PM »
Unfortunately I think the 6th finger tends to be rather useless and limp (I have seen a picture of it).

Depends on the person. Some of them are quite useless, some of them are fully functional. Most are in between.

John Roth

Chiara DB

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #17 on: July 03, 2011, 05:52:51 PM »
You are right, Betty. If something is blatantly off-topic I'll delete it; however, Chiara's comment is valid, too, since I've asked both her and John Roth to watch over the forum and help keep things on topic whenever possible. She wasn't trying to restrict choice, she was simply making a comment based on things I've discussed with her regarding the forum guidelines.

Thanks, Dave. It's not only that, but the fact that I don't think the MT actually has an answer for this question, because not everything has a magical, mystical reason for being. I wouldn't do a tarot card reading to find out why my car won't start, nor go to a psychic to fix a broken leg.

And if expressing my opinion on this or any other subject limits the choices of others to be able to discuss it, I would say that is a problem with their psyche, not my actions. 

Betty

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #18 on: July 03, 2011, 07:00:01 PM »
All I did was express my opinion.  Never said her comment wasn't valid.  Never said I had a problem with it.

Tina

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #19 on: July 05, 2011, 02:24:31 PM »
I can understand that Chiara DB was saying from the standpoint of someone who takes care of the forum. If I were the one who is responsible for answering all those questions on the forum, the first thing come to my mind when i see a question will also be that if i have the possible answer for the question and naturally tells if it is a "Michael question".

From my point of view, I don't expose to Michael teaching enough to tell if Michael can answer one of my questions. When a question comes to my mind, my first thought is that Michael might have answer for that question. There is possibility for the answer. And in the question "why do we have ten fingers and toes", it's possible that the over simplified question may sound like I am looking for reason for this why. But I am not asking why don't we have flippers. In that case, I really need to ask a biologist, or maybe a 5- year-old.  Actually i am asking if this number ten has some correlation with Michael teachings. I have to apologize that I unpredictably manifest at Baby1st level from time to time when I am speaking in English, I guarantee that I will be far more complicated speaking in my mother tongue. :-*

John Roth

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #20 on: July 05, 2011, 03:06:41 PM »
I can understand that Chiara DB was saying from the standpoint of someone who takes care of the forum. If I were the one who is responsible for answering all those questions on the forum, the first thing come to my mind when i see a question will also be that if i have the possible answer for the question and naturally tells if it is a "Michael question".

From my point of view, I don't expose to Michael teaching enough to tell if Michael can answer one of my questions. When a question comes to my mind, my first thought is that Michael might have answer for that question. There is possibility for the answer. And in the question "why do we have ten fingers and toes", it's possible that the over simplified question may sound like I am looking for reason for this why. But I am not asking why don't we have flippers. In that case, I really need to ask a biologist, or maybe a 5- year-old.  Actually i am asking if this number ten has some correlation with Michael teachings. I have to apologize that I unpredictably manifest at Baby1st level from time to time when I am speaking in English, I guarantee that I will be far more complicated speaking in my mother tongue. :-*

The MT seems to have a fondness for the numbers 3, 4, 7 and 12. I seem to remember a channeling where they said the fundamental numbers for this universe were 2, 3, and 7, and that other universes had different fundamental numbers.

On the other hand, some versions of string theory use octonian fields which is where they get 10 (or 11 if you add time) dimensions. (And no, I don't intend to discuss it; I've often expressed the notion that they'd solve all of the problems if they let Schrodinger's Kitten loose.)

My observation is that some numbers seem to come from common experience - four, for example, seems to be quite natural for directions. I have yet to hear of a culture that expresses directions in a hexagon, for example. Other things seem to be culturally dependent: Chinese mysticism, for example, uses 5 extensively. There are five elements rather than the western classical four elements.

Seven appears to be popular: in psychology it's part of the notorious "7 +/- 2" for the number of items that it's possible to remember at one time. Chunking things in 7s is a good way to organize information if people have to be able to hold it in their head and remember it.

HTH

John Roth

jk

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #21 on: July 05, 2011, 06:38:07 PM »
The most fundamental number (and not just according to Michael) of this universe, seems to be number 7. Which is not to say that there are no other special numbers.

The "specialness" of 7 can be validated in physics:
Musical scales have 7 tones, light breaks into 7 colors etc. It seems to me to be the number of "fragments" various energies in this universe break into naturally.

7 is special in many religions and I suspect this comes from various "prophets" or what we would call channels, obtaining some universal truths.

Anyways, Tina, like I said, you are not the first one to have asked Michael that question. I gave you the answer they have given, and they did not elaborate on that any further as far as I remember.

I actually appreciate your question because it indirectly made me rethink these things and how can we validate them.

John Roth

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #22 on: July 05, 2011, 08:58:07 PM »
The most fundamental number (and not just according to Michael) of this universe, seems to be number 7. Which is not to say that there are no other special numbers.

The "specialness" of 7 can be validated in physics:
Musical scales have 7 tones, light breaks into 7 colors etc.

Light does not break into 7 colors, regardless of what you were taught. The next time you see a real rainbow, check how many colors you can see. It'll almost certainly be 5, not 7. The notion that there are 7 colors in a rainbow is a fiction by people who like the notion of the number 7, and it continues because people aren't willing to look at what's in front of their faces and challenge received wisdom.

The same is true of the musical scale: the scale we use in the West isn't universal by any means. It simply happens to be the one we're used to.

John Roth

Tina

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #23 on: July 07, 2011, 03:43:27 PM »
The MT seems to have a fondness for the numbers 3, 4, 7 and 12. I seem to remember a channeling where they said the fundamental numbers for this universe were 2, 3, and 7, and that other universes had different fundamental numbers.

On the other hand, some versions of string theory use octonian fields which is where they get 10 (or 11 if you add time) dimensions. (And no, I don't intend to discuss it; I've often expressed the notion that they'd solve all of the problems if they let Schrodinger's Kitten loose.)

10 dimensions of space as a concept has also been mentioned in Buddhist sutras. They said "10 fang shijie" in Chinese, which I translate word by word as "10 dimensional worlds".

My observation is that some numbers seem to come from common experience - four, for example, seems to be quite natural for directions. I have yet to hear of a culture that expresses directions in a hexagon, for example. Other things seem to be culturally dependent: Chinese mysticism, for example, uses 5 extensively. There are five elements rather than the western classical four elements.
Yes, earth element is a bridge and catalytic element of the other four elements in Chinese traditional culture. In my birth information, 3/4 are earth. So it's unlike astrology, it doesn't mean it's a fixed element.

Chunking things in 7s is a good way to organize information if people have to be able to hold it in their head and remember it.
But i'm still kind of superstitious about 7.

HTH
John Roth

YIH, yes it helps. Thanks a lot!

Tina

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #24 on: July 07, 2011, 03:46:33 PM »
The most fundamental number (and not just according to Michael) of this universe, seems to be number 7. Which is not to say that there are no other special numbers.

The "specialness" of 7 can be validated in physics:
Musical scales have 7 tones, light breaks into 7 colors etc. It seems to me to be the number of "fragments" various energies in this universe break into naturally.

7 is special in many religions and I suspect this comes from various "prophets" or what we would call channels, obtaining some universal truths.

Anyways, Tina, like I said, you are not the first one to have asked Michael that question. I gave you the answer they have given, and they did not elaborate on that any further as far as I remember.

I actually appreciate your question because it indirectly made me rethink these things and how can we validate them.

Hugs~~~ :)

gilfaethwy

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #25 on: June 30, 2012, 05:12:41 PM »
An interesting question --

The persistence of pentadactyly is to me one of the obvious proofs of species evolution.  It is what might be called the "default" condition of all tetrapods.  It is true of Amphibians and Reptiles.  The mammalian order of Primates is one of the more conservative ones, and its retention of the pattern is clear.  The same is true of the Insectivora (shrews and moles), Chirpoptera (Bats), Monotremes (Platypuses and Echidnas), Marsupials, Sirenia (Manatees and Dugongs), Edentata (Armadillos, Pangolins, Aardvarks, Anteaters), and even seals and their relatives (Pinnipeds), with the bones of five fingers in their flippers. Departures from pentadactyly are later adaptations: Cetaceans, for example, often have hyperphalangy-- more than the usual number of joints per digit.  Most of the more derived mammalian orders have fewer than five digits, often three or four, though usually with some vestigial evidence of the missing digits.  Most Dinosaurs had five digits, though later forms lost one or two-- theropods and their descendants, the birds, being a case in point. Like the Cetaceans, the marine forms like Plesiasaurs and Ichthyosaurs often had more than five digits with many joints in their flippers, a convergence .  Even coelacanths have five incipient digits in their limblike fins.  So the reason we have ten fingers is because that was the number the first tetrapods had.  Apart from mutations, genes are quite conservative -- also an argument against "Intelligent Design", along with many other things (such as, why design from scratch a human female who gives birth via a narrow channel within the pelvic girdle, when it would be easier and safer to have babies born through the stomach, as in a Caesarian?).

Jon

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Re: Why do we have ten fingers?
« Reply #26 on: October 10, 2013, 04:03:38 PM »
Such a funny thread, sorry I missed out when it was fresh.

Of course, if the OP was being serious and not silly, the answer is: because mammals have 5 digits per limb, and we are mammals. 

As a child I once asked my mom why our dog had a thumb way up in the middle of his leg. Her answer: because God made dogs that way.

A common ancestor mammal developed 5 digits per leg. Thumbs allowed humans to use tools. The rest is history.