Almost three-fourths of Americans believe Jesus was born of a virgin:
or, by generation:
On the other hand, another Pew poll found that 61% of Americans think that climate change is happening, with only 40% asserting that the cause is human behavior. Thus, many more (73% versus 40%) in the USA believe in Jesus BEING BORN TO A VIRGIN than humans causing global warming.
HOW AN AMERICAN CHILD VIEWS THE BIRTH OF JESUS
I went to a Christian Sunday school, saw inumerable Christmas Nativity plays and have reason to believe that my view in early youth probably reflects that of most in the USA:
- Songs like Away in the Manger and We Three Kings were influential.
- Mother was Mary and father was Joseph, who was a little older and had a beard.
- Jesus was born in a stable.
- Three wiseman, who might have been kings, were guided by the Star of Bethlehem, and gave the baby three gifts.
- Remember, the intellectual level of this group is such that they actually believe Santa Claus is being pulled by reindeers to deliver presents.
Essentially, the same as above, but with more details, such as the birthplace being Bethlehem, Mary being a virgin and the gifts being frankincense (dried sap of trees burned as incense for medicinal purposes), myrrh (perfume for dead bodies...which makes no sense to me) and gold. Actually, very few adults know what frankincense and myrrh are. Did you know?
THE BIRTH OF CHRIST FROM GOD'S VIEWPOINT
THE BIRTH OF CHRIST FROM GOD'S VIEWPOINT
Geez, humanity is screwed up. Where is the peace? I will send a representative to save them. What better person than Jesus, my son. I will transfer him as an infant into the womb of an earthly virgin. Mary is identified, and as she is only around 12 years old, should be a virgin. But there has to be some sanctity to all this, so I will find her a husband who is really old, like 90, so that there is no misunderstanding of his role. Thus came the Nativity scene.
PLAYBOY: What is your view of Jesus?
DAWKINS: The evidence he existed is surprisingly shaky. The earliest books in the New Testament to be written were the Epistles, not the Gospels. It’s almost as though Saint Paul and others who wrote the Epistles weren’t that interested in whether Jesus was real. Even if he’s fictional, whoever wrote his lines was ahead of his time in terms of moral philosophy.
Granted, this from Playboy magazine (September 2012), and, further, that Richard Dawkins is a noted skeptic. Read his God Delusion.
BIBLICAL SCHOLARS ON THE BIRTH OF JESUS
Of course there was a real Jesus. He was probably born as early as 6 BC, but more likely late in the year 5 BC or early in 4 BC. While December 25 is actually a most unlikely date, this day was universally accepted, for it had been used for eighteen centuries.
But this matter of being born where animals lived is not supported by logic and documentation. As Joseph was from Bethlehem, he no doubt had some important family link for this momentous occasion, and if that home was filled with other people, then an indoor location was nevertheless secured for the birth itself.
However, God did have some influence in all this, and wanted his son to establish a reputation for starting at the lowest level, so either a well-cleaned manger (a box where hay is placed to feed horses) was used as his display crib. All this could have occurred outside the house so more visitors could see Him.
Who were these wise men, or magi, or astrologers, and how many showed up? First, Snopes contends that there was no such thing as three wise men. Nowhere in The Bible is this stated. There is greater certainty that Magi did come to worship him, but not on that night, much later, actually, and by then Jesus was indoors. Matthew 2:1--
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him . . .
But, of course, Snopes is hardly a bibilical scholar, so to be more historically correct, read this. There is also the matter of some of them being linked to King Herod, who two years later ordered the massacre of two-year old infants born in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Typical of the variation opined by scholars, the number killed ranged from 10 to 13,000 to 64,000 to 144,000. Ten is probably closer to the truth.
But this is the problem about Biblical scholars. While the Dead Sea Scrolls were significant, they also read the most obscure of manuscripts in vague languages and formed impressions from grossly inadequate data.
THE BIRTH OF JESUS ACCORDING TO ME
Last year on this date my posting was entitled The Truth About Jesus. Adjusting my statement from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:
So, therefore, place yourself back to circa 50 AD. Nothing much can be found about Jesus. Conflicting descriptions can be unearthed about this individual, but absent any miracles and the connection with Son of God. Is it possible that a group sees an opportunity to spur something called Christianity? So they pick a mortal of those days who might just fit a concept called the Messiah. They borrow selectively from early Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, and Greek writings to create the legend of Jesus Christ around a real-life martyr. He was in his prime at the age of 30, so they choose 30 AD as the founding of Christianity. Could this incredible PR ploy have started it all? Did all this lead to the Catholic Church of today!
Want more? At 4PM (EST, or 11AM in Hawaii) this morning, CNN, for 12 straight hours, airs:
Tomorrow I try to explain the mysterious tsunami this weekend in Indonesia that killed 500 or so. December 26 is also the 14th anniversary of the Great Sumatra Tsunami, which brought 227,898 deaths in 14 countries. Certainly looks similar to my Six Hours to Seattle.
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