The Virgin Birth re-imagined
Which is the better story
Every now and then the world changes. Not small change, which is happening all the time, but great big huge change as in “Now that we have more knowledge and better resources, I suppose we’ll have to re-write all the books”.
This happened when we realised the world wasn’t flat, wasn’t 6,000 years old, and wasn’t circled each day by the sun…although the printing press hadn’t yet been invented so no drama.
Recently knowledge and technology have increased dramatically. We used to think that our solar system was the whole universe. We now know that (just in the piece of the universe that we can see), there are about two trillion galaxies, each containing about 400 billion stars. To assert that we are the only form of intelligent life is now more absurd than our previous certainty that extra-terrestrials only exist in science fiction books or the minds of raving lunatics.
Now that we know the earth is four and a half billion years old, it’s reasonable to assume we might have been visited by intelligent life from elsewhere. Not in the past 6,000 years but what about 30,000 or 300,000 years ago?
If so, how would primitive man have described these visitations? “A blinding light in the sky” “intense heat” “winged angels” “a golden flying chariot” “A burning bush” “giants walking the earth” (These references all come from the Bible, not Star Trek).
And as for the Greeks, their stories relate to two different species, who fought a furious battle against each other – the Titans and the Olympians. The Titans were seriously strange and included the one eyed Cyclops, and the fifty headed Hecatonchires. The Olympians seemed to have more human properties – or perhaps it was the other way around – perhaps primitive humans developed Olympian properties through the sharing of DNA.
“The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose” Again – the Bible, not Dune. I think “married” may be a euphemism here.
And so we come (seasonal post!!) to the Virgin Birth. Most religions have virgin birth stories in which the “Gods” (or “God” in monotheistic religions) came down and impregnated certain chosen women. The resulting progeny tended to have superhuman qualities. In Greek mythology they were blessed with things like extreme beauty (Helen of Troy) strength (Hercules) prophecy (Apollo) healing (Asclepius).
We’ll never know if this DNA splicing happened physically (Zeus certainly seemed to have a high sex drive) or in a laboratory (this sounds eerily science fiction but even we humans have managed success at IVF which could result in a virgin birth).
And at some point an impending cataclysm! Perhaps incoming asteroids – too many to send Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck up with a single nuke, but not a problem if you have the Star fleet at your disposal. Just gather up the DNA and board the ship before the tidal waves hit.
Obviously this is far more realistic story than the one of Noah and all those animals. I’ve seen George Clooney in a Perfect Storm so wouldn’t fancy Noah’s chances in a wooden boat, particularly with a couple of Bengal tigers on board. Even small children are known to ask “But what did they do with all the poo?” Out of the mouths of babes…
But it’s the Christian story that prevails today because it’s our most recent and because it mixes mythology with history. The Angel Gabriel came down from Heaven, told Mary (a virgin) that she would give birth to the son of God and call him Jesus. This person being half human and half divine had superhuman properties – the power to heal the sick and manifest food for the hungry plus the compassion to forgive his attackers (lower conscious beings – they know not what they do.)
But what if we all have this power dormant in our DNA as part of our genetic heritage?
As Pi would say… which is the better story?
a) Extra-terrestrials who can travel across galaxies at light speed.
b) God and angels who live in a place (Heaven) just outside the earth’s atmosphere.
If the answer is (a) the question might be will they attack?! Given that they’re more advanced than us, they’re likely to have figured out that war is a stupid waste of time and resources.
If the answer is (b) this God had a son, whose birthday is tomorrow.
Whichever side of the divide you’re on, I hope you have a happy Christmas.
Or in the words of John Lennon Happy Christmas, war is over.