Virgin Birth Myths
Virgin Birth Myths
Virgin birth myths may all have in common that they are explanations of how something exists instead of nothing.
What was the seed that fertilised inert possibility?
Looking out at today's weather which I can see from my computer station in front of the window I see falling snow and all looks white, grey, sunless, and inert.The sparrows have hidden themselves in the ivy. People who depend upon seasonal produce will be more alert to weather. Among those, people who believe in magic will try to reanimate the world by means of so-called 'pagan' rituals.
All religions evolved from earlier religions. One constant in the world all people know is how to control the future. This constant is problematic for individuals and societies. Magic was one means to that end and faith in deity is another.
Science is practical such that all people have done what they could to preserve themselves through common sense or through more advanced technology. Common sense, and science, never did and never could explain how it is that something is happening, that something changes. And science cannot express feelings of hope and fear.
It's a category error unfortunately common with Christianised individuals to try to explain virgin birth myths by means of common sense or science.Whether or not virgin births exist in nature is nothing to do with the value of the myths.If anything looks like a miracle the arrival of spring does.Yes, we know that the planet has this relationship with the sun and so on. Virgin birth myths don't mediate science but express the feelings we have about revival of hope. The OT Creation story for instance is a sort of virgin birth myth without any specific reference to a human virgin. God created stuff from possibility.
It seems that the virgin in myths is always a female because the female was long thought of as the basic sex for reproduction, and the female was so taken up with work , pregnancies, and lactating that she could not usually engage in specialised defence and in plotting the future. The result was that the male was the active force that managed and activated the female force, and that's why the mythical virgin is female in the stories.
Whatever you judge about the rights or wrongs of such divisions it must be right to honour the female which gives 'herself' to fertility and traditionally has a sort of quiescence so that our natures endure the hardships of winter.
What was the seed that fertilised inert possibility?
Looking out at today's weather which I can see from my computer station in front of the window I see falling snow and all looks white, grey, sunless, and inert.The sparrows have hidden themselves in the ivy. People who depend upon seasonal produce will be more alert to weather. Among those, people who believe in magic will try to reanimate the world by means of so-called 'pagan' rituals.
All religions evolved from earlier religions. One constant in the world all people know is how to control the future. This constant is problematic for individuals and societies. Magic was one means to that end and faith in deity is another.
Science is practical such that all people have done what they could to preserve themselves through common sense or through more advanced technology. Common sense, and science, never did and never could explain how it is that something is happening, that something changes. And science cannot express feelings of hope and fear.
It's a category error unfortunately common with Christianised individuals to try to explain virgin birth myths by means of common sense or science.Whether or not virgin births exist in nature is nothing to do with the value of the myths.If anything looks like a miracle the arrival of spring does.Yes, we know that the planet has this relationship with the sun and so on. Virgin birth myths don't mediate science but express the feelings we have about revival of hope. The OT Creation story for instance is a sort of virgin birth myth without any specific reference to a human virgin. God created stuff from possibility.
It seems that the virgin in myths is always a female because the female was long thought of as the basic sex for reproduction, and the female was so taken up with work , pregnancies, and lactating that she could not usually engage in specialised defence and in plotting the future. The result was that the male was the active force that managed and activated the female force, and that's why the mythical virgin is female in the stories.
Whatever you judge about the rights or wrongs of such divisions it must be right to honour the female which gives 'herself' to fertility and traditionally has a sort of quiescence so that our natures endure the hardships of winter.
Re: Virgin Birth Myths
WRT to Christianity, it is important to understand that the earliest "books" of the NT do not affirm Virgin Birth theology.
i.e. none of Saul's letters.
nor Gospel of Mark (where Jesus was a mortal man with sin like all others - until God adopted him upon Jesus' baptism by John the Evangelist in the river Jordan).
per the above "Books" Jesus was born like any other man and his father was just a Ave Average jewish guy.
i.e. none of Saul's letters.
nor Gospel of Mark (where Jesus was a mortal man with sin like all others - until God adopted him upon Jesus' baptism by John the Evangelist in the river Jordan).
per the above "Books" Jesus was born like any other man and his father was just a Ave Average jewish guy.
Re: Virgin Birth Myths
Thanks for replying Gaffo.I thought my original post was a still birth.
I have no objection to mythical stories as poetic tropes. I understand that Greek Orthodox Christianity does not attempt to superimpose enlightenment ideas upon the old myths, so these are a poetic way of thought quite separate from historical, biological, or anthropological investigations into Biblical texts. Spirituality is art not science.
I have no objection to mythical stories as poetic tropes. I understand that Greek Orthodox Christianity does not attempt to superimpose enlightenment ideas upon the old myths, so these are a poetic way of thought quite separate from historical, biological, or anthropological investigations into Biblical texts. Spirituality is art not science.
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Re: Virgin Birth Myths
Virgin birth myths? Please, you are giving short shrift to parthenogenesis.
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Re: Virgin Birth Myths
Except not in mammals and even if it could happen no baby Jebus as no males this way.
https://www.newscientist.com/blog/short ... irgin.html
https://www.newscientist.com/blog/short ... irgin.html
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Re: Virgin Birth Myths
bobevenson wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2018 5:55 pm Virgin birth myths? Please, you are giving short shrift to parthenogenesis.
Arising_uk wrote:Except not in mammals and even if it could happen no baby Jesus as no males this way.
bobevenson wrote:"Helen Spurway, a geneticist specializing in the reproductive biology of the guppy, Lebistes reticulatus, claimed, in 1955, that parthenogenesis, which occurs in the guppy in nature, may also occur (though very rarely) in the human species, leading to so-called virgin births." -Wikipedia
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Re: Virgin Birth Myths
Remember what I keep telling you about the 50's bob? Time to leave them.
As usual you didn't bother to read anything that might affect your confirmation bias and hence challenge the safety and security of your lunacy.
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Re: Virgin Birth Myths
I guess you'd also reject Albert Einstein who died in 1955.Arising_uk wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2018 9:11 pm
Remember what I keep telling you about the 50's bob? Time to leave them.
As usual you didn't bother to read anything that might affect your confirmation bias and hence challenge the safety and security of your lunacy.
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Re: Virgin Birth Myths
You just can't cope can you bob.
Oh well, whatever keeps you off the streets.
Re: Virgin Birth Myths
The immaculate conception is not a myth. Who would be the ''other'' that knows that?Arising_uk wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:15 pm
You just can't cope can you bob.
Oh well, whatever keeps you off the streets.
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Re: Virgin Birth Myths
Dontaskme wrote:The immaculate conception is not a myth. ...
Is someone saying something here?Who would be the ''other'' that knows that?
Re: Virgin Birth Myths
So it seems/appears.Arising_uk wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2018 1:00 pmDontaskme wrote:The immaculate conception is not a myth. ...Is someone saying something here?Who would be the ''other'' that knows that?
What this appears in or from I cannot know except in this CON-ception.
Re: Virgin Birth Myths
What I find unfortunate is that no one here seems to be able to provide even an intellectual explanation for the process beginning with the immaculate conception and concluding with the virgin birth. If no one can do it, how can the idea be contemplated? Maybe Oprah knowsBelinda wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:13 am Thanks for replying Gaffo.I thought my original post was a still birth.
I have no objection to mythical stories as poetic tropes. I understand that Greek Orthodox Christianity does not attempt to superimpose enlightenment ideas upon the old myths, so these are a poetic way of thought quite separate from historical, biological, or anthropological investigations into Biblical texts. Spirituality is art not science.
Re: Virgin Birth Myths
It's very easy to understand how virgin births can occur in humans.
A young girl gets pregnant and fears being stoned to death, but the hymen is intact enough to pass a virginity test. What else can she do to survive?
A young girl gets pregnant and fears being stoned to death, but the hymen is intact enough to pass a virginity test. What else can she do to survive?