Scenerio: You click on the news in the morning and to your surprise you see something completely unexplainable. You see news crews on boats, all camera’s trained on one figure strolling across the Chesapeake Bay. Just walking on the water. When questioned the man just keeps saying the same things…“I’m just on a walk … would you bother someone walking on the sidewalk?” … “Please, all I want to do is take a walk and get back to work…”
So you are seeing this on the morning news…What do you do? Think? It is verified and in 12 hours Peter Jennings is talking about it on World News Tonight. Wolf Blitzer is too etc…etc…
Would it have religious implications? What is he didn’t want to lead anyone, maybe he said everyone has the capacity to do it.
*I usually read Richard Bach’s "Illusions once a year… For people who know Bach, they know why I write the OP. It is just very interesting to me, to think about what would happen in this day and age of Mass media. How would the world react?
I think it is quite likely that it would have very serious religious implications; because it would essentially be a duplication of something that Jesus was reported to have done - anyone who has a strong opinion on the matter of Jesus and Christianity (including adherents and adversaries) would be eager to use it to reinforce their views (the adherents shouting “See?- It is possible!”, the adversaries shouting “See? - Anyone can do it!”.
Of course the good folks here at the SDMB would be skeptical, but open-minded, delaying judgment until such time as solid evidence was available on the matter…
I am saying just this. If it were verified scientifically. Meaning he really was practicing something that made him be able to do this…Be him an advanced soul or not.
What if it were verified.
I can only imagine what my thoughts would be if in this day and age something like this happened. What would I be thinking if I was strolling around Montauk Point and saw a man (or woman for that matter) just walking amongst the ripples on the ocean. Not staring about, not looking for attentions, just on a walk.
The gentleman in question has to know that he’s doing something unusual and it wouldn’t take much thought for him to realize that he’ll be the focus of great curiousity. If he wants privacy he’ll need to go someplace where he won’t be noticed so readily, or even walk at night.
That said
The question is, how does he do it? Is it divine intervention or has he made a discovery, based on physical principles, or perhaps made a new discovery (flubber or somesuch ). Is he a ghost?
I’d have to eliminate the possible before I’d believe the impossible.
I remember driving through East Germany many, many years ago with a friend who had a Polaroid camera.
We stopped at some small village outdoor cafe and he took a picture.
Within minutes, the entire cafe gathered around and you would have thought my friend was Merlin.
Having never seen this “magic”, they were in shock, they smiled, they laughed…everyone had to have a picture taken. One guy got out his knife and slit the back of the photo to see how the trick was done (I liked his style…I considered him to be the scientist of the group).
Another patron called her sister-in-law who ran a block down the street to come see this magic for herself.
Only one of the patrons said he had heard of these cameras, but had never actually seen one (I guess he would be the worldly scholar of the group).
My friend went through two packs of film and made the day for a lot of people.
So if I saw a guy walking on water, I would try to get as close as possible and see exactly how the water and foot were interacting.
Maybe I would give him a push to see if he could land on all fours.
(I would be the obnoxious skeptic.)
I’d be the guy asking what the religious implications there would be in the first place. Jesus allegedly walked on water, but there’s nothing inherently religious about the feat.
Anyway, yes, first thing I’d think of is special shoes or some other kind of propulsion, then I’d start wondering about things like the density or salinity of the water…
