The Virgin Birth of Life

As I promised in an earlier entry, here is a follow-up on how the Mythic reading of the Virgin Birth of Jesus helped me come to grips with what I now call Biblical Truth. The Virgin Birth of Jesus is a reflection of the first birth of life from non-life. Whether you take the story of Creation as told in Genesis completely metaphorically, or even reject it outright, you must know that there was a time when there was no life on earth. Science (today) puts this time about 3.5 billion years ago. So, one moment there is nothing that we would define as "life." Then, the next moment there is. Life has sprung from non-life. This is the virgin birth of life that is mythologized both in Genesis and in the Virgin Birth story. Of course, this early life was hardly anything to speak of. A certain arrangement of a certain type of molecule that all of us smart people now think probably gave rise to something even more special. But as a secularist, this was the first time I'd considered that the Virgin Birth of Jesus meant anything at all. It's also the first time that I learned that something could be both metaphorical and true. In other words, the Virgin Birth of Jesus is both factually true, and representative of the first birth of the first man. Most people don't have trouble imagining that some creative force was present when this life arose from non-life. Possibly a "life force" or something inherent in the rocks and stones themselves. Regardless, this is compatible with Genesis in that Adam was made from the stuff that was already there. Some people, however, insist that no kind of force or anything else was involved. Random, chaotic chance over lots and lots of time is all that it took. I'll come back to this at a later time. Tonight, I only want to point out the difference between the two opposite philosophies. One camp feels there is purpose and meaning derived from some creative force that lies outside of existence and time. The other says that there is no purpose or meaning save what we ourselves give to ourselves. Existence is its own meaning. We might say that the thing itself and the meaning of the thing itself are the same. Though I may profess a Christian faith, this fundamental difference that I've outlined is not necessarily a reflection of that faith. Many people worldwide who are not Christians profess a belief in some kind of creative spirit or prime mover. Here I simply contrast that with a purely secular belief where no such thing exists at all. To be continued...