Originally Posted by Og

I tend to think that the notion of "being conceived by the holy spirit" and the entire christ birth story is a metaphor for the divinity of his teachings, not a literal story of his birth.

The Buddhists also tell a story of how the Buddha was born from a slit at his mother's side. It indicates that he was born differently (he didn't follow the normal birth canal path of all people). Also, the slit was at the level of the heart which is the breakthrough point and fulcrum of the hindu spiritual system.

The buddhists tell this story and do not believe it is literally true. It is a metaphor for the teachings of the Buddha.

If you read in things like rape and whatnot, you anthropomorphize the holy spirit and the notion of god into a concrete object and miss the point.

Of course jesus wasn't literally born of a virgin. The world doesn't work like that.