Facultative Parthenogenesis (Virgin Birth)
Clued in by an article mentioned in an email notification by the Reuters news service simply labeled “virgin birth,” I went down a bit of a rabbit hole. It was not the subject line of the notification… “Wild fires burn across Canada” was. But there it was, stealing my attention from the Canadian disaster that is current as of 08 Jun 2023.
It would seem that all those who say “virgin birth” is impossible, just aren’t familiar enough with the subject to make that claim. Run a search on facultative parthenogenesis and see what pops up!
Now, being a news service they didn’t include all the information that I need to know. Hell, what news service ever does? I’m one skeptical MF, and I demand evidence! It’s a good thing the Reuter’s article to which that email referred had links.
Now it’s not quite as simple as it appears, and it’s not just one recorded case of humans giving birth by this source, but it has been documented in humans. And while the list is quite extensive in other species, the idea that humans can reproduce this way is seen as, at the very least, distasteful and is to be viewed with a high degree of skepticism.
Now, I’m not looking for a debate. For me, it is an article of my faith that Jesus was “born of a virgin.” And I’ve been involved in apologetics long enough to know that to state in emphatic terms that is precisely what happened to a teenage girl in the Roman province of Palestine over 2000 years ago will raise not just eyebrows. Because as I said, it’s an article of my faith. But the possibility is there.
It has been documented in many species besides humans. Amphibians, reptiles, birds, and sharks (is there a link in the evolutionary chain of these four classes of animals that allows for this?), and it is curious to note that offspring produced in this way are always male, that is, unable to replicate itself without a female.
It’s just something that makes me stop and think that some men have an innate fear and loathing of women because, at some time in the evolutionary line of humans, they realized they were “different” than women, even lacking some “miraculous ability.” No that wouldn’t surprise me at all…
Is it any wonder that at least among some mammals, offspring from another male (like in the felines and many of the primate species ) will be killed by the dominant male…. Another coincidence? Perhaps, I’ll not rule that out. But, I do find that quite curious, don’t you?
I’ve left out a lot of the technical details, but it’s all there in the journal articles… many are available for free… and as I said, I’m not looking for a debate, but those who say it’s impossible for it to have taken place, as described in the Greek scriptures, should reconsider and drop it from their list of objections as an impossibility on the strength of the scientific evidence.