WALKING ON THIN ICE:

Jesus may have walked on ice, not water: study

By Jim Loney
Reuters
Tuesday, April 4, 2006; 6:22 PM

MIAMI (Reuters) - The New Testament says that Jesus walked on water, but a Florida university professor believes there could be a less miraculous explanation -- he walked on a floating piece of ice.

Professor Doron Nof also theorized in the early 1990s that Moses's parting of the Red Sea had solid science behind it.

Nof, a professor of oceanography at Florida State University, said on Tuesday that his study found an unusual combination of water and atmospheric conditions in what is now northern Israel could have led to ice formation on the Sea of Galilee.

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I think this sort of approach is naïve. Miracle stories gather around charismatic intermediaries as a matter of course, even in their own lifetimes. There is no need to look for naturalistic explanations of the stories. I have commented at greater length on this issue here.