Hydrophysics:1; Faith:0

In the most recent round of the Science vs. Religion fight:

Evangelist Preacher Franck Kabel told his congregation that he received a revelation from Jesus saying that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water. He organized a field trip for his church for them to witness his recreation of Jesus’ miracle of walking on water. One witness stated that he “walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back." (article).

I have a couple of working theories supported by this article:

• Theory #1: Evangelists are crazy blow-hards.
• Theory #2: Jesus hates evangelists.
• Theory #3: In a fair fight, science will kick faith’s ass every time.

Let’s say the preacher was telling the truth (about his revelation), either he didn’t have enough faith to pull off the miracle or Jesus intentionally tricked the man into drowning because of Theory #2. Now, I’m not a bible expert, but I don’t remember the Son of God to be a big prankster. Theory #2 is attractive, but ultimately not provable.

If Theory #2 is flawed, we can fall back on Theory #1. The guy obviously overestimated his faith and wanted to seize on a grandstanding opportunity. Why didn’t he test out his faith on a couple of trial runs? Nothing big at first, maybe a puddle. If that worked, step it up to a swimming pool. If his faith broke, at least there’d be a lifeguard to save him. Further support to Theory #1 is that none of the congregation went after the buy when it was obvious he wasn’t walking ON TOP of the water. So, Theory #1 is plausible.

Theory #3 speaks for itself.