In the news

[Indefinite Integral]

Virgin births becoming rather common in the U.S.:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/12/1 ... =obnetwork

Wow. Just...wow.

[S.A.M.]

Here's the link to the study:

http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f7102

[Whistler]

Virgin births becoming rather common in the U.S.:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/12/1 ... =obnetwork

It's physically possible, for example, for semen to be transferred through clothes or a tepid bathtub... but probably doesn't account for a full 1% of births.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news ... -rush?lite

[Portia]

Virgin births becoming rather common in the U.S.:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/12/1 ... =obnetwork

Wow. Just...wow.

Out of curiosity, does this incredulousness extend to the Biblical account? It does for me.

[Digit]

I don't know where I stand on that story in the news about the Indian diplomat getting arrested for paying her maid only $3 per hour. I guess among other well-thought-out reasons for giving diplomats a pass on obeying local laws is keeping them from becoming negotiation hostages (e.g., "Hey Pakistan, your diplomat just jaywalked. If you give us a concession on page 42 of the agreement of the day, we'll forget it happened."). Surely the purpose of diplomatic immunity is not to give people carte blanche to be as illegal as they want to be. And does a well-paid consular official really need to save $6.75 (minimum wage is $9.75 there) per hour that badly by thus treating a maid?

[Whistler]

so... could I get arrested if I paid a babysitter less than minimum wage?

[Marduk]

She wasn't arrested for violating minimum wage laws, she was arrested for claiming on official visa documents that she would pay a certain wage, something that was discovered to be grossly inaccurate.

(Also, technically a babysitter isn't an employee, they are contracted labor.)

[Violet]

And under 18s aren't held to minimum wage requirements.

[Whistler]

okay, I can understand that a bit more than.

[Digit]

She wasn't arrested for violating minimum wage laws, she was arrested for claiming on official visa documents that she would pay a certain wage, something that was discovered to be grossly inaccurate.

(Also, technically a babysitter isn't an employee, they are contracted labor.)

One of the most meager contracted labor things I've seen is Amazon Mechanical Turk, where humans can do things computers can't do so well yet (at least cheaply) like rewrite a sentence or find things in an image that fit a rough description for sometimes five or 10 cents.

[Indefinite Integral]

Virgin births becoming rather common in the U.S.:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/12/1 ... =obnetwork

Wow. Just...wow.

Out of curiosity, does this incredulousness extend to the Biblical account? It does for me.

No.

[Portia]

Wow. Just...wow.

Out of curiosity, does this incredulousness extend to the Biblical account? It does for me.

No.

Well, what's the difference? The record makes it clear that she was met with a similar amount of incredulity. (And I would have been with 'em.)

[Dragon Lady]

I think the Bible account should be met with a certain amount of incredulity. If it wasn't highly unbelievable, it wouldn't have been a miracle. That story is meant to be taken on faith. Which means our knowledge and understanding probably won't agree with it, but our heart can.

[Portia]

I think the Bible account should be met with a certain amount of incredulity. If it wasn't highly unbelievable, it wouldn't have been a miracle. That story is meant to be taken on faith. Which means our knowledge and understanding probably won't agree with it, but our heart can.

Well, then who's to say these girls are lying? Is it because it's contemporary? I'm a very logical person, and it just doesn't make sense to me. I don't think you have to take the Bible literally to get a lot of value out of it, personally.

[Whistler]

I think many of these girls don't know what sex is and had it despite this ignorance, or yes, they are lying.

[Portia]

I think many of these girls don't know what sex is and had it despite this ignorance, or yes, they are lying.

And that's what seems like the most logical explanation for virgin births in ancient times too, to me.

[Dragon Lady]

I didn't read the article and so I can't give my opinion on these girls. But I believe the nativity story is not a lie simply because I believe in the reasoning behind it and because I believe God can do miracles. Or in other words, there was a purpose behind Mary's virgin birth. I don't see a purpose behind more virgin births today. Especially as we believe Christ to be the only begotten of the Father. So I don't think He is fathering more children via virgins.

I don't doubt that it's possible for a virgin birth to happen (as Whistler pointed out), though. Just that I still think all of those babies still have mortal fathers.

But I also think that many, many, many people in the Bible viewed it as you do, Portia. Which is why I think it was *meant* to be viewed with incredulity. It was meant to be understood through faith. Not logic.

[Portia]

Hmmm, the literal-son-of-Heavenly-Father (as in conceived sexually) theory is actually much less prevalent in Mormonism today than it was in the nineteenth century. It's quite controversial.

Do you believe in the virgin/miraculous conceptions/births of Hindu gods, the Buddha, Greco-Roman pantheon, etc.?

[vorpal blade]

I believe that Jesus is the literal son of Heavenly Father, but we don't know if "conceived sexually" was the method actually used. Would you consider artificial insemination sexually conceived? I have no idea if artificial insemination is the method used either, but I just throw that out as an example of coming to false conclusions because we don't know all the possibilities on how things might happen.

Some myths concerning miraculous conceptions may be based on information once given to man by God but became distorted over time. I don't believe in these myths, but because myths exists does not mean that there is never any truth behind them.