I got as far as "Peter" and "drink" and . . .

Actually, most miss the point that initially peter walks on the water.
So, we can walk on water if we want to.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth perhaps...............LOL

I think the point came to be to read the narrative and interpret it on four levels - literal, allegorical, moral and anagogic. I doubt the narrative was meant to be interpreted in those four ways when it was first written. But I think it must have been meant to be interpreted in more than just the literal meaning. Perhaps the other meaning at the time was allegorical and it was somehow Gnostic or maybe, if Joseph Atwill is right, it has something to do with Caesar Augustus.

They understand that there are others who know more than they d and have learned that people tell the truth most of the time. There is an investment in what people tell them and once the investment is made it is hard if not impossible for people to see differently. I do not understand why people will invest when they know the investment is a bad one, when the outcome is not as stated and is not sustainable. But then most people think freedom means that they will be free to do what they want, when it really means that the upper class will be free to do what they want and the rest of us have to work so they can pay for it. People do not read. have not been taught to think critically, they are taught to follow and let the leaders do what they will.

Because

I never understood blind faith. Apparently it makes people feel safe.

A born skeptic, I scoffed at Bible stories in kindergarten. Like Grimm's Fairy Tales.

"Mom, I decided I'm an atheist," I said at 13. "That's fine, honey," she replied. "What do you want for dinner?"

Birthday girl, age 5. IQ: 147.

Ask yourself this question,
Q. Why did Jesus walk on water?
A. Because he didn't know how to swim.....LOL.

"The question is: why do people do this?"
Because everyone living a work-a-day normal boring hand to mouth existence wants to believe that one morning they are going to wake up to find they have become Spider man, Superman, Jesus or have won the lottery. Which means you get hoards of adoring fans, sex and cash on demand and the ability to stuff your boss in the local garderobe.
The easy way is always appealing if all you have to do is buy a ticket, have faith or find a radioactive spider.
It is wishful thinking and the power of the hero story.

Consider this. Someone tells a story about how brave his friend is. "We were out on the lake in a storm, being tossed about by the waves, and he just walks about in the boat on the water !" Then somebody tells the story again and forgets the three words, "in the boat."

Never underestimate the power of a misquote.

A drowning man prays to Jesus to save him. Miraculously a boat appears and there's Jesus himself to haul him aboard. The man thank Jesus profusely though asks "but Jesus, why the boat - can't you walk on water?"
Jesus replies "Haven't been able to do that since the put holes in my feet"

We all embellish our stories, we almost have no choice, language being as limited as it is for communicating to our bored, distracted, uninterested fellow apes. We leave whole adventures out, or insert real adventures from another time into a current event to maintain interest. Sometimes we share stories other people told but we didn't hear correctly. There's as many ways to distort the truth verbally as there are to write scriptures.
None of this should be surprising by now to anyone over the age of eight.

A different view:

The real message is: unless you have true belief, you can't walk on water.
Of course, it doesn't MATTER how strongly you believe, you can't walk on water, period.
This sets up the rest of it: you're an unbeliever, no matter what, which means you are destined for damnation no matter what you do.
It's an 'evil' religion; I'll take Buddhism any day. Agnostics are welcome.
(I'm not a Buddhist. I think.)

Because they...want to walk...on water?

I got nothing.