Rosenritter
New member
You give me the specifics on any sea creature that has a throat big enough for a man to pass through, a stomach big enough to hold him, plus a few day’s supply of oxygen, some means for reducing the carbon dioxide that would build up, keep the stomach acids from attacking the body, prevent him from passing deeper into the digestive tract, assure that the fish stays near the surface for several solid days so as to preclude the bends…
When ya got that in place, then maybe we will talk. (Based on your recent nebulous allusions to water somehow pushing up one end of a segment of tectonic plate, and mysterious super-whooper plate movements eradicating most life forms, and now this generic allusion to sea creatures, I am getting the sinking feeling we are not going to see more substantial offerings from you. I will give you credit for a declaring a firm 10,000 year limit to the age of the earth.)
You can’t disprove that the doorknob in my bedroom is not in fact the true and living God, who chooses that way to live where He can see into our world, or that the universe wasn't created last Friday at noon.
Am I to conclude you want to include the supernatural under the umbrella of what science should study?
You asked for specifics on sea creatures big enough to hold Jonah? Sperm whale, whale shark, and white shark. I hear that these have all been found carrying whole creatures big or bigger than a man. Additionally, other creatures could qualify as well that may not be as common today (dinosaurs) and these creatures may also come in larger than normal sizes.
How could he breathe? A whale's stomach contains some air, and there are multiple possible answers. One of which you already acknowledged, that of having the fish come to the surface a few times. Another that I already mentioned was that of slowing Jonah's metabolism, which hardly seems supernatural seeing that it's a technique known to Bhuddist monks today. So what if Jonah wasn't Buddhist? Considering that he's already steering the fish, it's not that hard for God to do it for him.
Stomach acid and bends? These are not our concern, because God wasn't trying to give Jonah a ride in comfort. He just needed to come out the other end of the experience alive. Regardless, by this point you already granted that "God prepared a great fish" for the purpose of swallowing Jonah. If one is preparing the fish to swallow him on command, it's a small bit extra to make sure that it's stomach acid is dilute enough to not dissolve the target (sea water anyone?)
Jonah and the whale is one of those examples for which it doesn't require much imagination for feasibility. Matter and energy remain constant and the minimum required supernatural interference is instructing the trained whale (large sea creature.) You might as well protest the storm that preceded the whole encounter, and claim that "it's not scientific that God could create a storm!"
Let's put this in perspective. You protest that an intelligent being able to create life from non-life, man from rock, is unscientific. I protest that an unintelligent accident creating life from non-life, man from rock, is unscientific. Only one of these has been observed to have happened. I think my scenario has a significant head start on yours.
You can’t disprove that the doorknob in my bedroom is not in fact the true and living God, who chooses that way to live where He can see into our world, or that the universe wasn't created last Friday at noon.
I could certainly dispute it. To quote Captain America, "There's only one God, and He doesn't dress like THAT." And besides, I was here last Friday at noon, so yes, I can disprove it through witness testimony.
Should we include supernatural under science of study? It depends what you mean by that. Spirits are known for being unpredictable, and I don't recommend trying to summon them or dabbling with the occult. So as a general answer, no. However, that is a far stretch from being so blind as to deny that supernatural does exist.