Atheism

Not far off; most of them were born of a virgin mother and on Dec 25.

Pretty true from my quick search on the net.

Busy day for virgins

I find it interesting how mythology has influenced so much of human religions and gods. Didn't know about the "book of the dead" until recently, and that's one of the key's to the bible.

I was in Qumran, Israel, recently. That's where some Bedouin shepherds found the Dead Sea Scrolls with biblical manuscripts. Even visited Masada.

Were there any rare collector's Superman comics mixed in there?

Could be, but most of it were worn down and very few were still found intact.

I wonder why Jesus was the last in the sequence. How come nobody tried to borrow the myth again after that?

I don't think of it as odd at all, I think of it as a metaphysical software upgrade. You have millions of believers out there whose brains currently run on the old system. You are an ambitious priest who wants to turn them on to yourself. Realistically, how can you do that better? With a marginal twist on the old software? Or with complete sweep of the hard disk, or in real terms, a millionfold brainwash? I think the answer is obvious, and not odd at all.

I don't think anyone can effectively separate the stories which have grown up in any religion, because they have been adopted/adapted because of their popularity. The Romans always celebrated their Saturnalia in December, originally on the 17th, then extended festivities strung it out to the 23rd. Christianity borrowed the feast day, and made it their own (although strictly christian feasts were, i suspect, sad affairs). When they shoved their way into northwestern Euorpe, they co-opted the Yule festival in the same say, many of the pagan trappings of which still survive.

But who can say which particular superstition first seized on late December? No one, i think.

There is also the issue of co-evolution. Back in high school, our German class compared fairy tales between cultures. It turned out that the storylines in fairy tales are more or less the same all over the world, even between cultures that have minimal to no contact with one another.

Copying and pasting cannot explain the similarities there. The explanation, rather, is that an unbounded number of storylines compete for people who remember and re-tell them. A process akin to Darwinian selection kicks in, and after a while, all but the most memorable storylines go extinct. The remaining ones are the same the world over, because people's memories and gossip revolve around the same plots the world over.

Religious narratives being a special case of fairy tales, the similarities between them seem unsurprising. And although copying and pasting played a role, the convergence would have happened even without them.

Well, the superstitions in question undoubtedly date back many thousands of years before there was even a written record. However, some things are obvious, such as the flood story in the bible. Scholars have little doubt that it derives from Gilgamesh, and the Jews did suffer the Babylonian captivity. I think it likely, though, that there is a less esoteric derivation of such stories. For the flood stories of the middle east, i suspect the event, about 7000 years ago (i'd have to look it up), in which the Black Sea was created accounts for them. Since virginity in prospective brides was highly valued, virgin birth stories are not surprising, either. You'd want the bride of god to be a virgin, and if she then gives birth while still a virgin--hey, Presto ! ! ! . . . you've got a miracle. As people were concerned with accounting for the same phenomena, i doubt that there were ever that many different stories, or that they needed very much winnowing. I suspect problems only arose when the population of the world got large enough that different religious traditions began to collide.

Hardly anything can be more revealing that that. It betrays an ahistorical perception driven by a personal agends which is anti-intellectual as well.

The obvious fact that it was chosen has entirely eluded Setanta's solipsism.

It is no superstition that the days began lengthening after Dec 21st. What dread is there in the idea that they would continue shortening as six months of solid scientific evidence suggested they would.

Hardly anything can be more revealing that that. It betrays an ahistorical perception driven by a personal agenda which is anti-intellectual as well.

The obvious fact that it was chosen has entirely eluded Setanta's solipsism.

It is no superstition that the days began lengthening after Dec 21st. What dread is there in the idea that they would continue shortening as six months of solid scientific evidence suggested they would.

I tend to agree with Set's idea over Thomas' co-evolution - just because all the religions touched on have geo-social overlappings.

But Set's mention of the value of virgins makes me think 'Did God break the "Though shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife" commandment?'

Aren't you the one who posted pictures of all those mythological gods of virgin birth?

I think that others may have.
This is info I learned from a neuroscientist named Sam Harris

http://worldlyperspectives.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/sathya-sai-baba-why-miracle-testimony-does-not-count-as-evidence/


This is something I came across on my own.

The only way I know to watch the below video is to click on this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUpp_UrnjFc

Yes....

Doesn't "virgin birth" mean there was no outside penetration?

I do have a question to add to your's; and that is according to the bible, man was created in god's image. Does that also mean sex organ?

A bit confusing, isn't it?

How about food, air, and everything needed to live a "biological" type of life?

Oh, I see. I still think implanting your seed in someone else's wife qualifies as 'coveting' regardless of the method used. I leave it to the lawyers :wink:

Just maybe, god knew about artificial insemination. Any doctor around?

On second thought; artificial insemination = god(s). Sounds okay to me!

You are aware, are you not, that the two processes are not mutually exclusive?