2014-06-08
Explanation
The Joke
God stands dramatically before Moses, declaring "Moses! It is time to part the Red Sea!" Moses begins the miracle, but a bystander (depicted as a glowing figure, possibly an angel or advisor) interrupts: "Hey, wait a sec. Are you parting it at the molecular level, or is the parting plane allowed to divide atoms?" Moses asks "Why?" and the scene cuts to a nuclear explosion, followed by a final panel showing the aftermath with small figures scattered around.
The Humor
The comic applies real physics to a biblical miracle. If you "part" the Red Sea by splitting it along a plane, you need to decide what happens when that plane intersects individual atoms. Splitting atoms releases nuclear energy -- this is literally what happens in nuclear fission. So a miracle that naively just "divides the water" could accidentally trigger a nuclear explosion if the parting plane cuts through atomic nuclei rather than passing between molecules. The joke is that even God needs to be careful about the implementation details of miracles, and that a physicist's pedantic question about the mechanism turns out to be extremely practical rather than merely academic.
References
The parting of the Red Sea is from the Book of Exodus (Exodus 14), where Moses parts the sea to allow the Israelites to escape from Egypt. Nuclear fission, the splitting of atomic nuclei, is the principle behind nuclear weapons and was a major scientific discovery of the 20th century.