The rock God can't lift.

[jonb]

Strangely when I was in school and the history books were using this as a way of suggesting Medieval Scholars were stupid I actually thought the writers of the history books we wrong because I understood that they may have been talking about concepts that were very subtle as the difference between spiritual/physical , power seperated from mass, finite and infinite using the angle needle metaphor so I didn't swallow the Dark ages was just a time of idiots even as per usual the media of the time focused on the same areas as it does now.

(Firstly as a side issue, and just to get it out the way. The 'Dark Ages' is a nineteenth century concept often used to justify the class structures of British and European aristocracy, the phrase is not now used in academic circles.)

I would agree with you, mediaeval people were not stupid, More in the 150,000 years modern man has been about there is no evidence there has been any change in the ability to think.

So angels and needles.
To understand these debates, it is worth looking at the historical background.
Mediaeval Europe was based on a rigid structure, both of class position, and of knowledge. However as they were developing it became useful to re-erect the academies similar to the ancient Greek models, to pass on knowledge. The problem with these new universities was that they were filled with minds encouraged to problem solve.
So these academic minds are pre-disposed to look for anomalies, and expose them. This put the Universities at odds with the church which needed to protect its rigid structure.
This creates a problem, society is based on a rigid structure, to question that structure could destroy society, on the other hand disperse the universities, and any chance of development or even maintaining the current structure of society is lost.
The answer is the angels on needles debates. it occupies the minds of the advanced academics, and yet does not challenge the order of society.
Your school books may not have explained why these debates were a waste of time, but that is precisely what they were designed to be.
And it seems just what they remain, don't think about central questions, which produce answers that do not fit the dogma, just fret about the lifting of rocks.