Such a good point.

And before all you Christians start getting all riled up, keep this in mind:

Paul, the earliest New Testament author, never mentions the virgin birth. For someone who we rely upon for much of Christian theology, it is an odd omission. Paul refers to Jesus’ birth twice (Rom 1:3; Gal 4:4) and never says he was born of a virgin or of different means than anyone else. You’d think that would be important. 

The virgin birth is also not in Mark, the earliest gospel, or in John, the only other gospel not based on Mark. Why is such an important story left out of all the early sources? Probably because it hadn’t been made up yet. 

Why would the story be made up? Perhaps to fulfill an old prophecy of a virgin birth, which the Gospel of Matthew cites: 

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14) 

Some scholars say “virgin” was a mistranslation in the Septuagint (the Greek translation the gospel writers used), and should have been translated “young woman.” That means the story might have been based on a mistranslation! 

It seems likely the virgin birth was created to boost the authority of Christianity through prophecy and compete with rival gods who were born of virgins.

When I was younger I used to love to trot this out to my Christian pals just to see how red they got in the face.

I am a little less combative these days, but it is still something that I like to introduce into the conversation once in awhile. 

You know just to keep everybody on their toes.

According to a British Medical Journal study virgin births happen all of the time. So much for being special Jesus!

"Just admit it mom, you were a slut."

Courtesy of CBS News:  

Roughly 1 percent of moms may be virgins -- or so they claim in a new survey. 

Virgin birth, or parthenogenesis, typically occurs in non-humans that reproduce asexually, including sharks, Komodo dragons, pit vipers and boa constrictors. The British Medical Journal, which published the study in its latest Christmas issue, points out many retell the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary this time of year. 

A team of American researchers wanted to find out the frequency this occurred in humans. 

“We examined the incidence of virgin pregnancy and birth based on self report of pregnancy and sexual debut, hypothesizing that individual and contextual factors may influence reporting,” wrote the researchers, led by Amy H. Herring, a biostatiscian at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. 

Indeed, that appeared to be the case for some women. The researchers found 0.8 percent of responders gave birth despite being virgins, without the use of any assisted reproductive technology like IVF. 

These women were more likely to have signed chastity pledges (31 percent of them) than the non-virgins who reported pregnancies (15 percent). 

For the study, researchers surveyed data on almost 7,900 women multiple times over a 14-year period between their adolescent and adult years, each time asking about their sexual and pregnancy histories. They were also asked about their age, religion and knowledge of different birth control methods. 

In total, 45 women gave birth while consistently claiming they were virgins. 

Wow, so many virgin births. Just imagine if each one wanted to start their own religion.

The majority of Biblical scholars agree that the immaculate conception part of the Jesus story was added much later, however it is still such an important part of the mythology that Christians are willing to go to war with the non-religious over it every holiday season.

However as this study demonstrates virgin births are a dime a dozen these days.

Unless of course the Christians think that a young woman claiming to be carrying a child without ever having KNOWN a man would be lying about that?

Surely they don't think that, do they?