Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Turning Christmas into Mythmas: why we shouldn't ditch the virgin birth


"There are hundreds of Greek, Egyptian and Roman myths about babies being born on December 25, why should we believe yours?" The young Goth, dressed in black from head to toe, was insistent. In a packed lecture theatre in Belfast I felt compelled to answer, perhaps not in the wisest manner. "You, sir, are a prime example of the dangers of Wikipedia," I began, before going on to point out that there were not hundreds of myths.

When the young man met me at the end of the talk I apologised for breaking the first rule of public debate – 'Don't belittle your opponents.' But he just laughed and said "No, I thought you were going to give me some of that Christian b******t , and I was going to walk out, but you called me on it. Cheers."

But this young man is not alone. Anyone who has watched Zeitgeist, read Christopher Hitchens or been involved with any of the plethora of new atheist websites will have this issue raised. It is alleged that the Christians just borrowed the myths of the Babylonian Marduk, the Egyptian Horus or the Greek legend of Perseus and came up with the virgin birth of Christ. To the uneducated and those who have a desperate need to debunk Christianity this seems so obvious that it must be true. It just makes so much sense – after all virgin births don't happen and Christianity is just made up anyway. Read more

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