"Debunking" Jesus

Can't agnostics and atheists do better than this when it comes to challenging Christianity?

A scientist in Israel says he has blown the lid off one of Jesus' miracles. He has "proven" that Jesus did not necessarily walk on water. Yeah!

It turns out that there is a statistically insignificant chance that Jesus only appeared to walk on water during a freakish episode of cold weather in the holy land 2000 years ago.

Combining evidence of a cold snap 2,000 years ago with sophisticated mapping of the Sea of Galilee, Israeli and U.S. scientists have come up with a scientific explanation of how Jesus could have walked on water.

Their answer: It was actually floating ice.

The scientists acknowledge that the Sea of Galilee, in what is now northern Israel, has never frozen in modern times. But they say geological core samples suggest that average temperatures were lower in Jesus's day, and that there were at least two protracted cold spells in the region 1,500 to 2,500 years ago.

In addition to chilly weather, their explanation depends on a rare physical property of the Sea of Galilee, known to modern-day Israelis as Lake Kinneret. It is fed by salty springs along its western shore that produce plumes of dense water, thermally isolating areas that could freeze even if the entire lake did not, they assert.

"I don't know whether the story is based on someone seeing Jesus walk on ice," said Doron Nof, an Israel-born professor of oceanography at Florida State University. "All I know is that during that time, a freeze could have happened -- and it could have looked like someone was walking on water, particularly if it rained after the ice formed."

Or, try this, Dr. Nof: Maybe Jesus is the son of God and he really walked on water! You sound like one of those Republicans trying to convince people, as well as themselves, that Bush is actually a good president. All of their explanations stretch logic to the breaking point. This "theory" of yours is no different.

This argument against the divinity of Jesus is so weak it practically proves the opposite of Dr. Nof's point.

And, this is not some fringe publication putting this silliness out there. This is the Washington Post.

Unbelievable.