Well, what I really meant to say is that: I believe that the stories in the Bible are meant to be taken metaphorically, with each story having a hidden meaning that Christians are meant to follow. The stories aren't all necessarily true, but they were put in the Bible so we could uncover the teachings in them.

Take for example the story of Jonah and the Whale. The literal story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale and living inside it's stomach for X number of days is "rediculous" (in my opinion) because 1) it isn't physically possible to survive in the stomach of a whale with stomach acid and without oxygen and 2) In Biblical times, there was NO WATER in the area where the story is supposed to have taken place. However, more important (imo) than being able to memorize the literal word-for-word passages of a story such as Jonah, is actually being able to take away a deeper meaning from the story and keep that as a value with you in your daily life.

I don't think that the story of Jonah and the Whale ever happened as described in the Bible. What I do think is that the writers wanted to impart upon us a valuable lesson, and the best medium they could use to convey that message was through a "rediculous" (imo), but straightforward, easy to understand story. I believe that the lesson is for children to obey their parents, young people to respect their elders, etc. The story of Jonah is a story of respect.

I think all stories in the New and Old Testaments follow this formula of the "impossible" used to convey a valuable message/lesson.

I am not the most articulate person, so I hope that makes sense. Also, I mean to offense to anyone. My original posting of my beliefs was very rude (sorry Prof), and I hope I've made it clear now that it is only what I believe -- I'm not trying to tell anyone how to read the Bible.

Btw, I am Catholic with a Jewish dad -- just to put things into context.

There were no such belief as Christianity at the time of Jonah the prophet.
You would think that it would take a miracle ...and maybe that is what the story of Jonah is about.

BTW, it says that G-d arranged a great/large fish (Hebrew: "Dag Gadol") to swallow Yonah. It does not say specifically that this was a whale (usually called a "Levyatan" in Hebrew).
Um, Jonah departed from the port of Jaffa/Yafo, still around today on the south side of Tel Aviv.