Virgin Birth Myths
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 12:10 pm
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.