I suspect the OP is using the term "never happened" as colloquial shorthand for the proper null hypothesis, which would be more accurately be phrased as "there is insufficient evidence to support claims of virgin births / resurrections."

@palex -- I think the same, but I want to hear it from the source of the comment.

@palex Would it be out of order to say these things are impossible?

@brentan In a technical sense, yes, as such an absolute claim would carry a burden of proof. Science would always allow for the possibility of virgin births, for example, if they can be demonstrated to have occurred in a controlled environment.

@palex Would it be presumptious to say emphatically that that can never succeed. I've read antifred's comment and I don't know what to make of it.

@brentan -- asexual reproduction in humans is possible, but the offspring would necessarily be female. However, technically, a woman can be impregnated without intercourse, thereby producing a 'virgin' birth. In other words, to say that is impossible is wrong based in ordinary physical reality.

The resurrection is also possible, providing the subject did not actually die. Because of the primitive and limited knowledge at the time a person could easily be pronounced dead yet still be very much alive, this even considering the purported injuries suffered before and during crucifixion. Because this is a possibility, though the story assumes death, saying it is impossible is technically wrong.

This is what antifred was saying but i'm darned if I understand it. He, as best I understand, is saying the sex of the child was female by the blood, not the cell, because in the case he read the cell had divided and only half was fertilised.It seems as if the life of the child is the result of the cell that was fertilised and the sex of the child by the blood in the other cell. But I see no reason to believe that reproduction is taking place without sex. I just see a case of the egg splitting before fertilisation.

I guess the idea of resurrection is easier even if it should be vastly more difficult. We seem to be talking here about a death that didn't happen, or perhaps happened legally but not really.

@brentan -- Well, as far as I'm concerned, neither happened and that the entire story is a modified and reconstructed myth from prior times. However, to make the assertion in argument is a trap, a trap too often fallen into.

@evidentialist Well I'm a little bit annoyed. I thought we were trying to grapple with the idea of a virgin birth from a biological perspective. As for your conclusion that it never happened, along with the resurrection, most of us accept that as true but discusssing it can be very enjoyable.

There is absolutely NO evidence that the virgin birth and the resurrection happened in reality. Also, these two events are not unique to Jesus. They occured over and over again in prior myths.

@BestWithoutGods -- This is true, and I think I said that. However, argumentum ad ignorantiam is not valid. This is the trap I mentioned. Although the utter lack of evidence plus experiential observations are adequate for me to form an opinion that these things did not happen in reality, it is not sufficient to make the assertion. When the only evidence to support an argument is a lack of evidence we are doing the same thing as those who say something is true because the holy books says this and that and thus.

@evidentialist Hmmm.... It seems to me that the burden of proof is on those who make claims that their mythology is reality. Their inability to provide valid evidence indicates that they are accepting the stories only on blind faith. It would be unreasonable for anyone to take their stories as reality, when all indications point toward mythology. This is especially so when other Bible stories have been proved false by science.

I acknowledge a possibility that I may not have seen all the evidence yet. If anyone can show me evidence I have not yet seen, and it is convincing, I will change my opinion. But I have given believers years to convince me that their story is real, and they have been unable to find any evidence to demonstrate that it is. Until such evidence is forthcoming, I am convince that it is mythological.

@BestWithoutGods -- So am I, my friend. The Brothers Grimm wrote more engaging stories with better practical moral messages. The problem is this: One cannot make an assertion without evidence to support it, and it works both ways. Our arguments are certainly more valid than are theirs, but we too lack sufficient evidence to support the claim.

@evidentialist I have accumulated evidence that the major "prophets" of the Bible predicted things that failed to come true, making them false prophets; that there are many contradictions in the Bible; that science disproves some bible stories, such as a 6-day creation 6,000 years ago, and Noah's Ark; that virgin births, resurrections and other "miracles" are common in non-biblical mythology; etc. From such evidence, I conclude that the Bible is not a book about reality, but about mythology.

Given the evidence I have accumulated, and the inability of believers to disprove it, I believe I have sufficient evidence to make my case and "support the claim."

@BestWithoutGods -- Hard evidence that the Earth is more that 6k years old is not evidence against the resurrection or virgin birth. The majority of believers hold that part of the bible describing the creation as metaphorical anyway, so it makes no marks with them. Only the hard core evangelicals and creationists would be slightly impacted by that and they have quite clever ways to move the goal posts around. In your mind, yes. In my mind, yes. But in a setting of debate, emphatically, no.

The entire basis of 'Christianity' is the Virgin Birth, as expounded by the innumerable Sects, of the entirely Mythological Jesus of Nazareth and his 33 years of life ( again never proven empirically to have happened), his death by Crucifixion ( again never proven empirically to have occurred) and his subsequent resurrection ( also never proven empirically to have occurred). Since Christians, for the majority that is, have somewhat discarded the Old Testament in favor of the New testament because, simply, it far better suits their purposes.

and the talking donkey.

@Geoffrey51 Raising the dead, healing the blind and leper, Walking on water, turning water into wine, feeding a multitude with a few fish and a few pieces of bread.

@jlynn37 I believe in the whole raise the dead and heal the sick thing. I just don't believe a Jewish fellow did it for free.

Try getting blamed for BEING that talking snake... not fun.

What is a Mithraist Christian?

@Geoffrey51 a "believer" who thinks that they might go up to heaven (Elysian Fields) after Jesus (Apollo, Hermes) "returns" (can't be quoted anywhere) and takes them? No one has ever gone up to heaven, there is only one immortal etc

@bbyrd009 Nonsense. There is no correlation between Mithras and Jesus other than the rituals that Christianity absorbed

@Geoffrey51 Google "Mithraism and Christianity" for more if you like, obv virtually everyone claiming "Christian" believes they are going up to heaven after they have died, to become immortals too, in direct contradiction to the Bible they claim to love so much and read so literally. They are Jesus Cults who have really quite obviously put Jesus in the place of Apollo/Hermes. Again, have a good one k.

@Geoffrey51 Google is sick with it, but here's one [cogwriter.com] prolly by some "righteous" religious person still tho i guess, "cog" ya he's a cog alright lol

@bbyrd009 Now I concur with you. I agree that Christianity took elements which also appear in Mithraism. It seems I missed misunderstood your point. I thought you were saying that Mithras and Jesus were the same rather than Christians taking on attributes of Mithraism.

Christianity is the great syncretic religion. It borrows from everywhere to appeal to the locals!