I’ve decided to put Movie Mayhem with God aside for a while, and delve into examining and reconciling the realm of science with God for this entry, mainly through the acts of miracles in the Bible. Many have fawned over these miracles, but frankly the hoo-haa-ing is a bit over-hyped, and I want to look at them in a more analytical manner. Lest I get stoned for blasphemy for that previous statement, my justification is that precisely because of God’s omnipresence and omnipotence, these acts of miracles are a piece of cake to Him. They are miracles only because we mere mortals are never able to pull it off through self-effort, duh! Ok, enough of the self-vindication because I know some purists will still hold the stand that I’m showing God gross disrespect. Today’s case study will focus on one of the most famous miracles in the gospel of Matthew, Peter’s act of water-walking. Actually, all human beings will have a tendency to float, depending on their body density versus that of water. One renowned example is the water floats enjoyed by many tourists in the Dead Sea, with an ultra-high salt content, which greatly increases its density, rendering us human beings so much lighter in comparison.
Typically, humans sink due to two forces jointly at work, namely the gravitational pull and the comparative density of what surface is that material we are on. As the typical ground we stand on is much denser than us, thus despite gravitational pull, we’ll never be unfortunate enough to get sucked into the centre of the earth. Proceeding along this deductive line of thought, for Peter to be able to float and even walk on water, all that is needed is:
1. A pull that overcomes the gravitational pull that drags him downwards into the water;
2. A change in the density of Peter in comparison to that of the water he is walking on.
Let us then look at what Peter did before and during the entire process of that famous miracle (Matthew 14:25-31 NIV):
1. Peter verified whether what he saw was truly Jesus; (vs.28)
2. Then he proceeded on to ask for Jesus’ permission to have a try; (vs.28)
3. Upon Jesus’ green-light, he made his own go at it; (vs.29)
4. All was well until he stopped focusing on Jesus and got distracted by the waves and storm, thus he started sinking and had to cry for help to Jesus, who then gently nagged at him for being of little faith. (vs.30-31)
From the entire process we can see that, even Peter’s minute faith in Jesus during the instance between vs.28-29, by just seeking for verification that it is indeed God, and then asking for permission, was more than enough, to firstly overcome gravitational pull of the earth, and secondly alter his own body density relative to the water! Think of Jesus being like this ultra magnetic with a pull that way surpasses that of gravity, while also being an incredible alchemist of sorts, changing Peter’s “element” (i.e. changing Group I element in the periodic table into Group II element).
Interesting when you choose to look at this miracle from the physics and chemistry point of view, you see how much God’s dabbling can effect, when you only need to ask him with faith. However, I think God still intends for many forms of work (NASA scientists, astronauts, and cruise liners’ captains, etc.) to continue, thus so far there hasn’t been any repeat occurrences yet. Or maybe we’re just like the other 11 disciples, being much too “scaredy-cat” to even ask for a shot. Even then, kids do not try this at all, whether under the supervision of only human beings, adult or not. Water is not as dense as the lego tiles in this picture... :p
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