More Apologetics: Jonah And The Whale
Posted by Job on February 11, 2007
Well, another loss for the Bible bashers, all of you rationalists, atheists, skeptics, and modern liberal revisionists who claim that Bible believers reject science. As usual, it is the Bible haters who discount science in order to reject the Bible. One of the most – criticized events of the Bible was Jonah and the whale, based on the belief that no whale is capable of swallowing a human whole, and even if one were, no man could survive in his stomach for three days. Now this is not such a huge issue for me, because I read this story allegorically anyway. Oh, make no mistake, Jonah WAS thrown from a ship and swallowed by SOMETHING. But the Bible does NOT call it a whale, but rather a big fish. When you further consider that Jesus Christ, Yeshua Hamashiach, said that Jonah emerged from HELL after three days and that so would He, and that Revelation said that the final resurrection would be the dead from the earth AND FROM THE SEA, I had wondered if the “big fish” that swallowed Jonah was actually LEVIATHAN mentioned in Job, the Psalms, and other places.
But for those who like their Bible straight with no spiritual allegories, this is for you. Now I have to admit, I thought that whales big enough to eat people fed themselves similar to blue whales, which despite their huge size live off plankton and similar that they filter through their baleen, a bony structure in their mouth. Hence, even if a man were capable of getting under or around the baleen in a blue whale’s mouth, I had doubts that a blue whale would be able to actually swallow a person, and even bigger doubts that a blue whale would be so inclined to do so even if one could. Now I was aware of whales that ate in a more conventional manner, but considered them to be far too small, as in the orca killer whales, which though much larger than humans – and known to, well, eat them, are probably not large enough to swallow one whole and carry him in his stomach. More to the point, even if a killer whale could, there is the issue of whether he WOULD, since he could easily consume the human in a series of bites as would a shark.
But there is ANOTHER species of whale, and probably several of this sort: SPERM WHALES! Sperm whales get up to 60 feet long or longer and way many tons. That means that they have a mouth, esophagus, and stomach more than large enough to swallow, force down, and hold a man whole. And no, sperm whales are regular eaters, not baleen filter – feeders. Although, not QUITE regular! See, in a way that evolutionists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris would have trouble explaining how via evolution and natural selection this came to be, sperm whales have bottom teeth but no upper teeth, and even if they did have upper teeth it would do them no good because their jaws are not built for chewing. So, sperm whales swallow their food whole. Further proof: the favorite food of a sperm whale is the GIANT SQUID. They are so named because they are well, giants: up to 43 feet long, with the main portion of it (meaning the head, not the tentacles) being up to 7 feet long, and weighing up to a ton. Finding a sperm whale with a fully intact giant squid much larger than any man still in his stomach is quite routine. So far from being unable to eat a man, a sperm whale would more likely pass up a mere 200 lb. 6 foot tall morsel as not being worth his time! And oh yes, sperm whales do sometimes decide that what they have swallowed whole is not to their liking, so they simply regurgitate them.
So that leaves the final question: how can a man survive for three days in a whale’s belly? Well why not? First off, the digestive process for animals that swallow other large animals whole is very slow, not only for whales but also for large constrictor snakes. Second, anyone who has ever gone fishing and cleaned and gutted their catch fresh knows that when you open it up a bunch of water doesn’t come rushing out. Fish and other higher underwater animals are not water bags, they are water - tight! That is why goldfish float to the top of the aquarium when they die! So no, Jonah would not have drowned. What about oxygen? That’s the best part. Whales are not fish! They are MAMMALS! They breathe AIR! A whale, dolphin, manatee, or what have you comes up for air, and then DIVES, HOLDING ITS BREATH! So Jonah was in a watertight chamber filled with air! And not only that, there is no real evidence that Jonah was being suffocated, crushed, and pressed by flesh! Again, if a sperm whale’s stomach can hold a 1 ton 43 foot long squid, there would be plenty of room for a 6 foot tall 200 lb. man! He would be like a wallet in a woman’s purse! Or more like a sailor in his barracks (sleeping quarters) of his submarine!
So, the story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale, living for three days, and then being vomited up is entirely plausible according to science. It is the people who MOTIVATED SOLELY BY THE HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS AGAINST THE BIBLE who deny and cause harm to science and general knowledge with their claims that it is impossible! The worst part is that there are PLENTY of marine biologists who know perfectly well that a sperm whale – and possibly other whales – can swallow a man, and that a man could conceivably survive (especially if the whale chose not to eat anything else) the ordeal. As a matter of fact, there have been reports of people who have been swallowed by sperm whales and lived to tell the tale! Do an internet search and see what you find! Here is a link from the BBC, not exactly a hotbed of Christian fundamentalism. But the most amazing thing is that one of the very events of the Bible that is most attacked as ridiculous, implausible, and unscientific is actually one of the most easily explained and understood by common science! The fact that Bible critics refuse to do so and continue their attacks proves that they know more than they would like to admit. More importantly, they know more than they want YOU, the person that they wish to convert into their Bible – hating religion and worldview, to know. After all, they don’t exactly teach you in public schools that there are whales capable of swallowing you whole and allowing you to continue for a time in their tummies, do they? Hmmm … but the main thing is that you do not have to be like these people. You can come into the knowledge of the truth, and not through religion, but through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins, say the salvation prayer! apologetics,apologetics, Bible, salvation, salvation prayer, salvation through Jesus Christ, how to be saved, atheism, rationalism, skepticism secular humanism,
Lynn said
Unfortunately, too many people who cloak themselves in a fear-based theology believe they have the whole truth and are experiencing actual reality despite their endorsement of the many manufactured ideas having absolutely no historical or scientific foundation.
Please read on, if you truly want to know the facts, though harsh, as opposed to all the fantasies, or soft and gentle lies designed to control, manipulate, and pacify a conditioned populace holding onto a false paradigm. If you are not interested in the facts, then disregard the following discourse and remain in the comfort zone of illusions and counterfeit reality.
First, it is an established fact of science determined by the speed of light that the age of the Universe is approximately 14 billions years old. On the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy alone, our own Solar System is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years of age. This means that for at least eight to nine billion years, or rather for an indeterminately long period before the Earth came into existence, an infinite number of other galaxies, countless star systems, and innumerable planets were in active operation. In view of these facts, it would be either naive or the height of anthropological arrogance to assume that nowhere else in the cosmos is there sentient intelligent life.
The highly primitive and archaic idea that the Earth is somehow at the middle of the Universe and thus “God’s” favorite piece of real estate is a defunct idea from Middle Age superstition that should have been laid to rest long ago.
In 1609, Galileo developed his own telescope in Europe, and performed observations leading to the discovery of Jupiter’s four major moons. This illustrated for Europe and Christianity’s benefit that there are other centers of orbit in the unlimited expanse of the Universe. The Church, however, being so certain of its dogmatic position and the Earth as an exclusive orb refused to look for themselves for fear of exposing their own ignorance and verifying Galileo’s discovery. As a direct consequence, the Christian Church steeped in its glorified superstition and ignorance imprisoned Galileo until he recanted and then placed him under house arrest until the day he died.
Worse yet, twenty-five years earlier in 1584, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for teaching that every star in the Universe is a sun with orbiting planets inhabited by intelligent life. The discovery of extrasolar planets is a recently verifiable fact that has become more apparent as astronomical probes and other telescopic instrumentation brings fresh revelations of the cosmos.
Moreover, the Hubble Telescope, the Cassini Space Probe,
Voyager, and several more instruments of stellar observations have demonstrated for the world an unfathomable and expanding Universe of which our own Milky Way galaxy is just one of an infinite number. Further still, all over planet Earth ancient drawings in caves, as well as the Nazca lines in Peru, crop circles all over the world, and even on a 3000 year old ceiling beam at Abydos in Egypt (http: http://www.crystalinks.com ancientaircraft.html) there are depictions of alien spacecraft, alien biological entities, and highly precise geometrical patterns that can only be viewed thousands of feet above the surface of the Earth (http://www.cropcircleresearch.com/index2.html).
My point is that its time to expand our consciouness outside of the box of religiously conditioned mind control. Both religion and the established scientific community has linked arms to keep the public unwary and ignorant to the fact we share the cosmos with other civilizations much farther advanced than our own. Even within our own government, there are credible individuals from airline pilots to high ranking retired military officers to air traffic controllers to former members of the CIA that have publicly stated during a National Press Conferences in Washington D.C. their willingness to testify under oath before a US Senate Investigating Committee to the veracity of their first hand experiences with either alien crafts, alien technologies, or even alien biological entities themselves (http://www.disclosureproject.com/). This is an issue all peoples of planet Earth need to become informed about. Although, I must say that the most so-called “primitive” peoples have long since been familiar with this phenomenon (i.e. American Indians, Australian Aborigines, Dogon of Mali, Nigerian, and Zulu Shaman of Africa, Amazons of South America, just to name a few). It is only the self-assured high tech nations that are in an official state of denial. At any rate, it is time to grow up from the infantile belief that we alone inhabit the vast Universe.
http://www.disclosureproject.com lde
Reya said
Well then as a christian, I also believe aliens exist. The universe is forever expanding and believing that we are the only life would be a little outlandish.
healtheland said
http://www.unidentifiedthemovie.com/