Science humbug: Jesus walked on ice, not water

---by Micheal

Doron Nof, an oceanography professor at Florida State University is publishing a paper in which he asserts that Jesus walked on floating ice, not water. Professor Nof, a non-religious Jew, describes himself as an "equal opportunity miracle buster," because he and a colleague suggested in the 90s that it was "just" wind that parted the Red Sea for Moses.

The problem with Nof's latest "miracle busting" is that he apparently has almost no idea what he's busting.

Nof's study of core samples suggests that the Sea of Galilee was as much as 10 degrees cooler 2000 years ago. Freezing was much more likely. That, and he describes a phenomenon called Springs Ice, in which saltier spring water floats on top of a body of fresh water and can cool and freeze faster in cold air than the whole lake could. In an interview with a CNet reporter, Nof explained that Springs Ice would be confined to near shore (the spring source)

Jesus, Nof claims, could have been walking on Springs Ice, not water. Sound plausible? Only if you have less than a Sunday School youngster's knowledge of the events.

Nof admits to having less knowledge than that. "I don't know whether the story is based on someone seeing Jesus walk on ice..." Nof told a Washington Post reporter. Nof is only operating on a culture-rumor level of knowledge of the event he's claiming to "bust."

Read the accounts -- Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-51, and John 6:16-21. The boat load of disciples saw Him. Eyewitness accounts. Note too, that there were strong winds and high waves. This is hardly the placid, non-mixing waters of Nof's mental image. Jesus walked out to a boat far into the lake, not near shore where Springs Ice might form on a calm cold night.

What if there were chuncks of Springs Ice? Imagine the scene. Jesus is on shore. The boat is out in the middle of the lake (they had been trying to row across for several hours against the headwind). Jesus has to travel against the wind and waves. If there were chunks of floating ice, they would have been coming at Jesus at a good clip. He'd be jumping from chunk to wave-tossed chunk like someone trying to go UP a wiggling DOWN escalator. How likely does this sound?

As a kid in Minnesota, I found out the wet way that walking on ice chunks is not easy. Unless the ice is thick, it will more likely break than support your weight. Unless the ice chunks are much longer/wider than you are tall, they'll just tip and dump you in than let you stand on their edges. Real ice doesn't behave like cartoon ice.

Come to think of it, if Jesus really had run against the wind and flow of ice, hopping from chunk to chunk to a boat out in the middle of the lake, that really would have been a miracle. Mere mortals couldn't have pulled that off.

Sadly, however, Professor Nof serves as a fine example of "science" managing to "bust" only its own poor understanding.