# camel\>needle: camel needs to survive the process? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 31, 2000, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454 "2000-08-31T04:59:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2000, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/21 "2000-09-09T22:46:00Z")
Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2000, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/22 "2000-09-11T14:43:10Z")
If life begins at conception, then take a fertilized camel egg, pass it through a neadle and implant it in a camel womb. not easy but possible. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2000, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/23 "2000-09-11T15:52:33Z")
… or, pass the entire rest of the universe through the eye of the needle EXCEPT the camel, and then claim you’ve moved the camel through the needle’s eye using relativitistic principles. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/24 "2000-09-11T15:55:17Z")
… or, blunt the point of the needle (so we don’t hurt the camel) and put a thread through the eye of the needle, and then give the thread to the camel to eat and then defecate out… and claim you’ve done it by inverse logic (passing the eye of the needle through the camel.) ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2000, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/25 "2000-09-11T15:56:24Z")
… or build a membrane that is permeable only to camels, and … No, wait, wait, stop me, stop me before I cause harm! ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2000, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/26 "2000-09-11T19:17:21Z")
I still want CKDextHavn to demonstrate the difficult act of threading a needle with a rope. I had always put that down in the impossible category… ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2000, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/27 "2000-09-17T07:33:37Z")
> [@](#): > > He was using an outrageous comparison, both for humor (yes, the Bible has a sense of humor) and for dramatic impact. Explains rather a lot about the world as we know it. It conjures up some wonderful images of G in his lab with his heavenly company saying something like, “…And I think I’ll put these in here and call them women…lesseee what happens to the poor suckers now, just wait till he wakes up!” ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/28 "2000-09-18T14:41:28Z")
\<\< I still want CKDextHavn to demonstrate the difficult act of threading a needle with a rope. \>\> Sigh. Unbelievers, I dunno what to do with 'em. Unwind the strands of hemp or flax or whatever that make up the rope, down to the component strands, and pass them through the needle, and then retwist ‘em back into the rope. Nothin’ to it. If there were only two strands, then according to the King James Version, it’d be winding thine twain twine. ---
**Author:** ![roddyread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/65b543/32.png) [@roddyread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roddyread)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/29 "2011-06-10T20:11:52Z")
ok, It’s going to be hard, but this is 2011, quite a while later, So eh get over it eh. From the [answer posted above](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1560/whats-the-meaning-of-jesus-teaching-about-the-camel-going-through-the-eye-of-a-needle) Now, the theology. The message was viewed by the disciples as pretty bleak. In 19:25 – just after Jesus uses the comparison – the disciples respond “Then who can be saved?” “By human power, it is impossible,” says Jesus. Then adds hope: “With God, _anything_ is possible.” Even the salvation of the rich. As a miracle. On the other hand, it would be equally dangerous to argue “but I’m poor, so I’m okay.” The words of Jesus are not designed to give _anybody_ a false sense of security. My friend the pastor adds, “Apart from the mercy of God, we’re all done for.” Okay, so Human power is out; What about wind power? Lay a disused wind turbine on it’s side. Pin off the pointy end. Expand the base door a wee bit both sides. drag it about whilst weaving some big rope. Hey Presto! go walk your camel. Has anyone done this yet? Because it’s a great idea. You get your community rich from with wind tarrifs. Progress technology and humankind. Disolve the guilt of millions. It was hard … but well done us. hope God likes it. Now, hey look at those furrows the needle left in the ground … plant some camel food anyone? They eat almost anything. He’s meant to be quite a sound guy that God bloke. Anyone fancy investigating space and stuff? ---
**Author:** ![roddyread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/65b543/32.png) [@roddyread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roddyread)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/30 "2011-06-10T20:20:01Z")
Ah drat, The needle in [MattithYAH [Matthew] and YAHchanan Mark [Mark]](http://www.angelfire.com/wy/Franklin4YAHWEH/camelthroughneedle.html) is a rafic. In Luke it is a belone. Both refer to needles used in sewing. We’ll have to make it like one of these. It’s either a lot more work or back to titchy tiny camels. In which case it’s about time we all started buying more fair trade produce; music, food, tech started imposing less stringent standards on third world producers, stopped the western govt protectionism stance on debt recovery, aid, trade, war etc I bet the cardinal, arch bishop and priest I shook hands with last night would agree… not with the betting though ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/31 "2011-06-10T21:49:31Z")
> [@Kyberneticist](#): > > I still want CKDextHavn to demonstrate the difficult act of threading a needle with a rope. > > I had always put that down in the impossible category… Depends on your definitions of “needle” and “rope”. I have an upholstery needle and some multi-strand nylon string (i.e. rope) that is ~1 mm thick. I have threaded that rope through the upholstery needle, and used it to sew. I can’t get a camel through that needle eye, even if I puree it. (The camel. Though come to think of it, I also can’t do it if I puree the needle.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/32 "2011-06-10T22:28:21Z")
I dunno; if you pureed the needle, then you could paint the pureed needle remains around an arch or doorway or the like. Sort of like the way Queen Dido claimed Carthage. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/33 "2011-06-11T02:56:18Z")
Can a zombified camel even enter Heaven, though? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/34 "2011-06-11T06:32:30Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > No,no,no. You use a BIG Cuisinart or Blender. Or a little one and a lot of time. Just like the Bass-O-Matic. > > And remember, the original quote doesn’t say t’s IMPOSSIBLE for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, just that it’s difficult. And after cutting up a camel into cuisinart-sized chunks you’ll appeciate just how difficult. Also, it’s not so much camel as camel stew at that point. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454/35 "2011-06-12T01:31:40Z")
“All things (_e.g.,_ a camel’s journey through A needle’s eye) are possible, it’s true, But picture how the camel feels, drawn out In one long, bloody thread from tail to snout.” —attributed to C. S. Lewis [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camel-needle-camel-needs-to-survive-the-process/31454.md?page=1)