Parthenogenesis

I heard about the hammer head shark in captivity with other females who delivered a baby shark "Immaculate Conception" style in a process known as parthenogenesis. Probably named for ancient Greek myths. Can you imagine the construction workers from the Parthenon: "Listen, Telemakos, the Parthenon didn't build itsself!" Sadly, knowing the ancient Greeks, they were probably using slave labor. Democracy was not for everyone back then.

I prefer "Emaculate Conception". Candles, egyptian cotton, mood setting music, massage oil, no condom (It's conception after all).

It seems there are a lot of examples of Parthenogenesis in the animal world. Indeed every vertabrate that is not a mammal has exhibited this capability at some point observable to modern science. Also many non-vertabrates can "get her done", so to speak, "all by herself" as it were. Annie Lennox is a prophetess.

This is an amazing ability and except for the lack of a mammalian incident (much less a human one) on record, this would seem to lend credence to the concept of a "virgin birth" like the one in the beliefs held by Christians.

Mary was said to have been a virgin who was suddenly pregnant without even mention of a mans name....wait a tick...there was that bloke Gabriel. Probably, Mary hooked up with her cousin's boyfriend, a non-practicing jew who'd been living in Samaria and was sent as a "messenger" to visit the family and ended up standing over her at some point. Gabe said things to Mary that I have at least thought of saying to any hottie who has favored me with her charms like "Hail [name here] full of grace"... and as her robe falls to the stone floor of the summer home on Galilee..."blessed art thou among women"...and later that evening another utterance echoes through the atrium..."Mother of God". Warning: that was sacreligous. I should have warned you before it happened. I'm sorry, baby, Now you'll have some 'splainin' to do to Joseph!

Yes, Occam's razor, if used for nothing else in this postulation, tells me that the simplest answer is Mary did things in the usual way. You know, things happen and you lie to yourself about them and spin them to those whose reactions you fear most. Women are equipped for this sort of thing by evolution.

That's why Jesus looked so much taller than the rest of the O'Nazareths in the family portraits which we of course have in museums proving the whole story happened. Right? ...What? There's no evidence just copies of manuscripts about a story? Huh?

Parthenogenesis is a natural occurrence in some creatures, and if it happened in a woman once, it being a natural (if rare) phenomenon, that would seem to take the need for a miracle off the table.

I will let you all know as soon as I "genesis" an ancient Greek temple in my sleep. You can all party with me. Bring a silk pillow and some wine, wear a grape vine around your forehead and dress in a comfortable, loose-fitting robe. Women only. Hey it's my "Parthenon", genesis your own.

=sw

Great Book I am Reading

If you read me ever, and you are few and highly valued....you know I love to read Carl Sagan's writings and lectures. I am reading "The Varieties of Scientific Experience" by Carl Sagan...edited by Ann Druyan (Annnn Droooooyan!).

Thinking about the wars around the world...the Palestinians fighting eachother...the Sunni's and Shi'ites fighting eachother and other such conflicts, some of Sagan's words ring true. Here he paraphrases a way of thinking to demonstrate how dangerous it can be. This may seem familiar to anyone who has transitioned from faith in a belief system to self-determined free thinking.

"Our history is in part a battle to the death of inadequate myths. If I can't convince you, I must kill you... ...You are a threat to my version of the truth, especially the truth about who I am and what my nature is. The thought I may have dedicated my life to a lie, that I might have accepted a conventional wisdom that no longer, if it ever did, corresponds to external reality, that is a very painful realization. I will tend to resist it to the last. I will go to almost any lengths to prevent myself from seeing that the worldview that I have dedicated my life to is inadequate." -Carl Sagan

This book is a great read and seems as relevant as can be to today.

=sw