There is a confusion in some minds connecting God as a church. When a chilld I had the erroneous view, later I learned was one of the fallacies, that the pastor and deacons were in with God, and therefore I blamed God for their behavior. It was in churches where crimes were committed against Jesus  and later on many unfortunates. A situation some blame on St Paul who was himself a zealot against early Christians and later the same in favor. There are those in many churches who gather perceived power to themselves. They relate more to those they can see because the Spirit they cannot see or even conceive. The devil is not in barrooms. He sends his minions rather directly to churches where they seduce many.

Achilles heel of Christianity defeated

Problem with Jonah  believability erased simply by realizing Jonah died in the fish and his flesh restored after three days as a purcurser of Jesus in the Old and authenticated by Him in the New. Jesus preached in hell to those lost in the Flood and  Jonah prayed to God, both while dead in the flesh. Believing Jesus rose from the dead is central to believers. If you can believe it possible for Jesus then it is possible to believe the Jonah story as well

Attacking belief in Jesus....

If Jonah is unbelievable thru the intellect then one has to believe Jonah never died but rather continued alive praying inside the whale which the atheist view suggests is impossible for Jesus as well.

So Jesus did not rise from the dead because He, like Jonah did not die in the first place. This is the doubt some attempt to build. But Jonah was not said to live in the flesh inside the whale while he prayed. He died, like Jesus died, and then Jonah was spewed in flesh on the beach. Jesus was not the only one to rise from the dead, nor was He the first one. After Jonah, recall Lazarus? There were others, less prominent, as well. Big difference with Jesus was He, as a man gave Himself as the last sacrifice voluntarily, knowing everything beforehand.

If one does  not believe in Jesus  power to rise again they resemble Christians who think they believe but not in His power, his ability to rise again, in the flesh. It is as though the doubters want us to believe Jesus was the only one rise, unbelieably, from the dead into eternal life. We, this view suggests, will not. Only faith can counteract subtle opposing and erroneous arguments.

Resolving Jonah.......

I only recently resolved my  long standing problems concerning Jonah in an unexpected way. Jonah is a purcurser to Jesus, according to Jesus Himself. Yet another connection between the new and the old Testaments. If this is (obviously) true then why depart from it?   

This ironically ties in directly to my experience asking about the people drowned in the Flood. First of all if Jonah (possible) was swallowed by a whale then he eiither drowned, suffocated, or digested, probably all. Then he was after three days spewed up on the beach alive and talking after praying  inside the whale. Why not?

Did not Jesus go down into hell and preach to those lost in the flood? He, like Jonah, was dead but his Spirit was alive. The spirit once released from God never dies. It quickens the body and sometimes departs before the body is completely dead.   Getting off topic, Later...

Stumbling blocks.....coming

The weak heel of Christianity is often said by the athiest world to be the story about Jonah.  More later....

Increasing and decreasing one's faith....

I'll wager there are many chuches who send their children off to college like lambs to professors who impress upon them the fact that if one is educated then they are atheists. In church many pastors only mention the easy passages and never tackle  anything that will test ones faith.

In fact it will leave them defenseless and convince them their professors are right. I include here religious colleges and Christian high schools,  both of which I attended.  Most atheists I meet became atheists because of church experiences.

And that is what happened to me. I was an atheist seven years.