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April 04, 2006
Jesus Walked on Ice!
I normally don't comment on either Christian New Testament accounts or on geological or climatologically phenomena. But when someone tries to mix them, I think that is a reason enough to make an exception. According to Eureka Alert, Florida State University Professor of Oceanography Doron Nof and his team have just published an article that suggests that Jesus walked on ice on the Sea of Galilee rather than water.
But this is just a public relations stunt! Here is what Nof himself said on the subject,
As natural scientists, we simply explain that unique freezing processes probably happened in that region only a handful of times during the last 12,000 years," Nof said. "We leave to others the question of whether or not our research explains the biblical account.
The article is published in the April 2006 Journal of Paleolimnology. Paleolimnology, I am told, is a scientific discipline "that addresses the reconstruction of lake history." The paper may be of considerable scientific value but, despite the claims in the Eureka Alert piece, it has nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with anything described in the Christian New Testament. Of course, there are always those who want to find "scientific explanations" for all kinds of things mentioned in the Bible or in Homer or in the Bhagavad Gita for that matter, but very few, if any, of these explanations are "scientific" and even fewer have anything to do with the literature they claim to explain.
And this public relations stunt is not just the product of the PR department at the Florida State University where Nof teaches or Eureka Alert. Nof and this team entitle their paper, "Is there a paleolimnological explanation for ‘walking on water’ in the Sea of Galilee?" (Take the link to read the article.) And they say this in the abstract,
One set of those springs associated with the freezing is situated in Tabgha, an area where many archeological features associated with Jesus Christ have been found. On this basis, it is proposed that the unusual local freezing process might have provided an origin to the story that Christ walked on water. Since the springs ice is relatively small, a person standing or walking on it may appear to an observer situated some distance away to be ‘walking on water’.
And this in their conclusion,
We hesitate to draw any conclusion regarding the implications of this study to the actual events that took place at Tabgha during the last few (or several) thousand years. Our springs ice calculation may or may not be related to the origin of the account of Christ walking on water. The whole story may have originated in local ancient folklore which happened to be told best in the Christian Bible. It is hoped, however, that archeologists, religion scholars, anthropologists and believers will examine such implications in detail.
And they mention "Jesus" and/or "Christ" a few other times in the article. Professor, why did you and your team feel a need to suggest a connection between Jesus and the study of "springs ice" in the Tabgha area? I can think of only two reasons. 1) You wanted to give an explanation of the miracle and therefore aid in the effort to "prove" the Biblical account true or at least make it plausible or 2) you did it for the publicity. Neither one is a very honorable scientific goal.
Update: April 5, 2006
Unscrewing The Inscrutable, Aetiology, Frink and Secular Outpost have takes on this nonsense. Give them a read.
Posted by DuaneSmith at April 4, 2006 04:44 PM | Read more on Religion |
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Comments
I agree completely with your assertions. Shouldn't these scientists be studying how to prevent our planet's current ice from melting?
And besides, who says Jesus didn't control the weather? He could be, like, the original X-Men... ;-)
Posted by: Kris White at April 4, 2006 05:12 PM
I am surprised the journal accepted the paper.
Posted by: Aydin at April 5, 2006 06:11 AM
Kris,
I'm glad you agree. Perhaps I'm not quite as practical when it comes to science as you are. I think the study of "streams ice," even "streams ice" in the Sea of Galilee may be good science but it needs to be presented without all that extra baggage. You never know what it will be good to know. Heck, their real scientific work might even be helpful in understanding global warming.
Aydin,
Perhaps the journal needed the gratuitous publicity also!
Posted by: Duane at April 5, 2006 08:19 AM
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