Rationalist Explanations of Miracles Harder to Believe than Divine Intervention

Colleague Rick C gets the coveted SWNID hat-tip for pointing us to the alarming news that an oceanographer at Florida State University has scientifically demonstrated to his own satisfaction that Jesus didn't walk on the water but floated on a rare piece of ice in the sea of Galilee.

Our response cannot surpass that of the inimitable Scott Ott of scrappleface.com, whom we quote in full:

And finally, a new scientific study out of Florida State University suggests that Jesus of Nazareth might have walked, not on water, but on a rare patch of floating ice in the sea of Galilee. The alleged miracle, which the Bible says happened in the middle of the night more than three miles from shore during a violent wind storm, was likely an April foolÂ’s prank that the clever Messiah pulled on his gullible followers. Next the professor plans to test his theory that the parting of the Red Sea during time of Moses was actually the work of an army of industrious beavers.

It has been observed at least since the time of Strauss (the biblical scholar, not the composer) that rationalist explanations for miracles are harder to believe than the miracles themselves. That's no less true today than it was in the middle of the 19th century.