12-14-2007, 06:54 AM
Christopher Hitchens
I no more believe that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary than I believe that Krishna was born of the virgin Devaka, Horus was born of the virgin Isis, Mercury was born of the virgin Maia or Romulus was born of the virgin Rhea Sylvia. As the preceding examples help to demonstrate, parthenogenesis would in any case not be proof either of divine paternity or of the truth of any subsequent preachings. The authors of St Matthew â whose account cannot be squared with the one offered by Luke â in any case seem to have mistranslated the Hebrew word almah, meaning âyoung womanâ, from the original legend in the book of Isaiah. Christianity insults our intelligence as well as our innate morality by insisting that we believe absurdities that are drawn from the mythology of paganism and barbarism.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/fe...gin-birth.thtml
I no more believe that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary than I believe that Krishna was born of the virgin Devaka, Horus was born of the virgin Isis, Mercury was born of the virgin Maia or Romulus was born of the virgin Rhea Sylvia. As the preceding examples help to demonstrate, parthenogenesis would in any case not be proof either of divine paternity or of the truth of any subsequent preachings. The authors of St Matthew â whose account cannot be squared with the one offered by Luke â in any case seem to have mistranslated the Hebrew word almah, meaning âyoung womanâ, from the original legend in the book of Isaiah. Christianity insults our intelligence as well as our innate morality by insisting that we believe absurdities that are drawn from the mythology of paganism and barbarism.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/fe...gin-birth.thtml