Geshtinnanna

Your questions and negative bias lead me to believe you may not really care to know an answer and just enjoy the slander of a religion. Just my two cents

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mplltt

I would have to say that it was a "hair-real" project and she was the recipient of the cells, yet I would refrain from the usage of rape. I think that she was awed with the white coats and all of the naturally big ways of saying that this was a "gift from God."

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Thank you, I am impressed that you are forgiving enough to approach this line of reasoning.

WilliamBlue

I think it's more likely that Mary had sex with some person unknown, as adultery was punishable by some very nasty means(stoning and such), she chose, and rightly so, to keep it a secret thus Jesus was probably... dare I say it, a bastard. Which does not make him a bad person and He may of been an enlightened individual if the story of his life has any truth to it, if he existed at all.
If an angel came to me and wanted to have sex with me it would be very hard to resist , but thats just me. I think that way about some of the models from Victoria Secrets

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When you dance with an elephant it's up to you to not get stepped on.
How can we be so arrogant and egotistical to believe that the whole Universe was created just for us?

WoundedEgo

None of the events described actually happened. They were made up many years after the cult was underway. "Matthew" or whomever read a Greek mistranslation of Isaiah that read "virgin shall conceive" rather than "girl shall conceive" and designed a story to match (though in reality, the event in Isaiah had "been fulfilled" some 700 years earlier).
Luke does the same contriving to show that Jesus, who was clearly from Nazareth (a cult leader of the sect of the Nazarenes, before he got promoted to "third person of the Trinity") was born in Bethlehem. His nose gets particularly long as well with making people all go back to their birth lands in order the get counted!
But yes, Jesus was clearly illegitimate (horrific term to apply to a child), since the texts work so hard to legitimize his birth.
Also, "Matthew" may want us to understand that God had sex with Mary and caused her to conceive, using euphemism by saying that "his breath came over her," and in this way he was the special son of God - the son of his love. (In the Bible, Yehovah is essentially a man who lives in the sky - not a great cosmic mind).
Note also the absurdity of the star travelling in front of the wise guys (astrologers), then parking over his birth place. "Matthew" writes this because he thinks stars are itty bitty lights placed in the sky ceiling that sustains the "waters above." We read elsewhere of the sky ceiling being shaken and the stars falling to the land. Cosmologically accurate? Hardly. Note also that Matthew considers the stars to be astrologically significant. He like many Jews believed in astrology. The stars accurately announce the birth of a great king. There are many appeals to astrology in the Bible.
Also note that "Christmas" is literally "Christ Mass." It was historically a lot like the modern "Harvest Festivals" that churches conduct at Halloween in order to draw people in from "pagan" celebrations. Only it was a mass. During the mass, the "priests" turn some bread and wine into the ACTUAL body and blood of Jesus and "sacrifice him" again to obtain "forgiveness."
All in all, the whole affair is a primitive bunch of foolishness with really good music, food and decorations.

marmalade

The theme of a baby being born from a virgin is related to a baby being born of a barren woman. Its an old idea.

About the barren woman version, I read somewhere that there was possibly a custom in ancient Judaism where travelling holy men would impregnate women that their husbands couldn't impregnate(ie barren women). And so this was considered a divine pregnancy as the holy men were representatives of God.

I don't know how this applies to Mary. If God impregnated Mary without her consent, then by definition he raped her. Of course, in those days, consent of a woman was probably never required.

Dunno

How is this rape
I mean if he can wipe out everyone in a Flood
he pretty much owns ya
wouldn't ya think?

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.

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Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
Satchitananda - True Being, Pure Consciousness, and Bliss
Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.
You & I, no distinction.
Mettā & Namaste

neverforever

Thanks og didn't really think about it that way they always made it seem so literal when i use to go to church.

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They'll know were agnostic by our brains.

Making more Christians one brainwashing at a time.

Yes i agree the bible is a history book.
Remember history books don't prove history they tell it.
So stop using the bible as proof

Og

Yah.. that's a bunch of provincial crap and people fearing the responsibility that comes with thinking for themselves. Religious leaders are willing to do the thinking for you so people don't have to be afraid.

The story is clearly metaphorical.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
Satchitananda - True Being, Pure Consciousness, and Bliss
Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.
You & I, no distinction.
Mettā & Namaste

MAYBE

To even suggest a human (Mary) was raped by an omnipotent being is so ridiculous the question it self does not deserve to be dignified by replying with anything but condemnation for blasphemy