My daughter was telling me about a recent science experiement she was doing. She says the substance is C4L3K, otherwise known as oobleck: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oobleck I started thinking that maybe the ancients knew of similar Non-Newtonian fluid compounds that behave in different states of matter, and used it as a "magic trick" to fool the masses.
How about turning water into wine, making the blind see, making the crippled walk, The sky opening up when Jesus was baptized, healing the deaf, healing a leper, healing a woman who was bleeding for 12 years, calming a storm, catching 153 fish, feeding 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and fish, cursing a fig tree making it wither, bringing Jairus' daughter back from the dead & also lazarus, and also The son of the widow at Nain, knowing the future that Judas would betray him and another apostle would deny him 3 times before the rooster crowed, and also knowing the Samaritan woman at the well had 5 husbands. He would really have to have alot of tricks up his sleeve if he was just conning everyone, dont ya think? How many miracles do you need to know he was not a con artist? Not to mention the great wisdom in his parables.
how hard is it to fool an uneducated audience? http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/kooks.html