# Whale Swallowing Man **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 17, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863 "2011-06-17T17:16:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/21 "2011-06-23T18:15:08Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > It’s probably just a typo - it was supposed to read “Jonah ate a big fish.” And Jonah vomited the big fish upon land. Probably as a result of GERD. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/22 "2011-06-24T17:20:44Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > to make a point, roughly the same point Jesus made centuries later in His tale of the Prodigal Son, though from the opposite viewpoint. It’s a point, in fact, that still needs to made. Help out a heathen, if you would, and explain said point? Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/23 "2011-06-24T18:21:48Z")
Basically, it’s that the complaint, “It’s not fair! Why should _they_ be forgiven when I always behaved perfectly in the first place? Stupid God!” is not what God wants to hear. _Già strilla l’angelico stuolo, Ghermiamo quell’anima al volo. Già l’opra del male distrugge Iddio col suo stolto perdon, Col suo stolto perdon!_ —Boito, _Mefistofele_, Epilogue ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/24 "2011-06-24T19:43:13Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Basically, it’s that the complaint, “It’s not fair! Why should _they_ be forgiven when I always behaved perfectly in the first place? Stupid God!” is not what God wants to hear. > > _Già strilla l’angelico stuolo, > Ghermiamo quell’anima al volo. > Già l’opra del male distrugge > Iddio col suo stolto perdon, > Col suo stolto perdon!_ > —Boito, _Mefistofele_, Epilogue “Already screams the angelic host, Soul seized on the fly. Already the deed of evil destroys God pardon with his foolish, A fool with his pardon!” —Google Translate ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/25 "2011-06-24T20:37:05Z")
A fool and his pardon are soon parted… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/26 "2011-06-25T00:05:38Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > A fool and his pardon are soon parted… A fool and a Parton are soon partying. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/27 "2011-06-25T23:11:34Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > “Already screams the angelic host, > Soul seized on the fly. > Already the deed of evil destroys > God pardon with his foolish, > A fool with his pardon!” > —Google Translate Google Translate cannot handle poetry. A rough rendering would be: Even now the angelic host calls out For the soul [Faust’s] taken up in flight. Even now the works of Evil are destroyed by God with His stupid pardon, With His stupid pardon! (The speaker, of course, is Mephistopheles, who is, at the moment, being tortured with a shower of rose petals from Heaven.) The Prodigal Son’s elder brother and Jonah have been taking spiritual lessons from the ultimate bad teacher. (I have only a rough-and-ready opera singer’s knowledge of Italian; anyone with a more solid grounding, feel free to revise it.) ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/28 "2011-06-28T12:25:23Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Basically, it’s that the complaint, “It’s not fair! Why should _they_ be forgiven when I always behaved perfectly in the first place? Stupid God!” is not what God wants to hear. If God doesn’t want to hear it, then why did he set up an unfair system in the first place? I’m curious why you think this is a point that still needs making. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/29 "2011-06-28T22:58:30Z")
> [@Powers](#): > > If God doesn’t want to hear it, then why did he set up an unfair system in the first place? > > I’m curious why you think this is a point that still needs making. > Powers &8^] The answer to that depends largely on whether or not you are a Christian. At any rate, the point is basic to Jesus’ teaching, yet it is often ignored. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863.md?page=1)