THE POSSIBILITY AND IMPROBABILITY OF A VIRGIN BIRTH
It cannot be too strongly insisted upon that the truth or falsity of this doctrine is a matter to be decided by evidence. We are concerned with an inquiry into the nature of the evidence brought forward in support of it, into the reliability of the witnesses, and into the consistency of their respective stories.
It is frequently asserted that the occurrence of miracles is denied by sceptics merely because they are contrary to the normal course of nature as observed and recorded by scientists, and that the only argument of doubters of the Virgin Birth stories is that, since no other virgin births have been authenticated, they are therefore impossible. This is not really the argument used by men of scientific and logical mental habits, as it is an argument which assumes the very matter at issue-namely, the impossibility of miracles. Moreover, a human virgin birth, though prima facie impossible, is not inconceivable.
Cases of virgin birth are well known to occur in certain circumstances and among certain species. For two or three or even more generations the Aphides normally produce their young parthenogenetically. The common green fly on our rose bushes, and other species of plant lice, are well-known examples of this procedure. Twenty parthenogenetic generations, before males are produced to share in the reproductive process, are quite common under natural conditions, and experimentally a very much larger number of asexual generations have been made to follow each other.
Certain species of fresh-water shrimps also produce their young parthenogenetically, in some cases for many years, before there comes a sexually produced generation.
Experiments have been made which show that unfertilized eggs of a frog can be caused by mechanical means to develop into tadpoles, and thence, in the usual way, into frogs; and the unfertilized eggs of sea urchins have also been caused, by chemical treatment, to develop into living and normal urchins.
In some kinds of plants, and in the lowest forms of animal life, reproduction is often asexual, and brought about by division or by some small part of the parent breaking off and forming a new plant or animal; and there are, as is well known to every naturalist, large classes of animals, as well as of plants, which are self-fertilizing hermaphrodites.
But these peculiarities, which are subject to fairly well-known laws, are limited to very few and comparatively lowly organized species. Parthenogenesis is unknown among mammals, and the only supposed cases of its occurrence among human beings are those believed in by the adherents of various religions. To some of these supposed cases, which are very numerous, we shall shortly refer. No one to-day will be prepared-probably no one at any time would have been prepared-to believe that all of them really occurred. Even the most credulous believe in only one of them, and that not upon evidence of its actual occurrence, but because they have always, from their youth up, heard that one story pass without criticism.
In other words, no one, whether scientific or superstitious by temperament or upbringing, denies the absolute possibility of a human virgin birth; but every one, whether scientific or superstitious, thinks such an event so nearly impossible as to require unexceptionable evidence before a report of its occurrence can be credited. The superstitious accept as evidence the hearsay of their childhood, and believe in one story. Though that belief entails the belief that one virgin birth has been possible, they believe that any other is impossible: they believe in a miracle. The sceptic, on the other hand, having learnt that so many other similar stories are supported by the same kind of hearsay, demands, before he will credit any of them, some good historical evidence of their actual occurrence.
He does not assert that they are absolutely impossible, but only that they are so very exceedingly improbable, and that they have been so frequently before accepted as true, without any trustworthy evidence whatever of their truth, by the adherents of various religions, that the evidence brought forward in their behalf cannot be accepted without some sort of inquiry into its reliability.
It is not the prima facie incredibility, but the lack of evidence, which forms the stumbling-block to his belief. We have examined the evidence (for the Virgin Birth doctrine) of the first two chapters of those books, written by unknown authors at unknown dates, called the "Gospels according to" Matthew and Luke respectively; and we have briefly referred to the evidence (against the Virgin Birth doctrine) of all the other New Testament writers. We have shown how the two witnesses "for" contradict each other and themselves in almost every particular. If we come to the conclusion that the weight of evidence is against the Virgin Birth story, we must class that story as equally mythical with all the other miraculous birth stories which we will now consider.
We ought, when considering miracles, to draw a distinction between a miracle which is an infringement of the laws of nature and one which involves a contradiction in terms-between a reported occurrence which is contrary to experience and one which is a real physical impossibility. It is prima facie impossible that the laws of nature should be broken, but it is credible that they should be broken by a Being who designed them; and it is, in some cases, not at all unlikely that our experience is at fault, and that therefore we are mistaken as to what some particular law of nature really is. If, then, such a miraculous event is reported, we are at first incredulous, but open to conviction. We ask for evidence, and are prepared, if the evidence is reliable, to believe that the unusual event occurred. But the evidence must be really reliable.
Miracles of the other class are not only prima facie impossible, but also incredible, as they are, to begin with, self-contradictory. No miracle can make 2 + 2 = 5, because we are dealing with defined abstract terms, and to alter the meaning of such terms is not a miracle, but a misstatement.
The report that a man or a god had picked up a rainbow and put it in his pocket would be incredible because such an act is a real physical impossibility, the word "rainbow" referring to an optical illusion, and not to a concrete thing capable of being handled.
(This example is chosen because it should excite no religious prejudices, no such miracle having been reported in any story. There are, however, other miracles actually reported which are just as much open to objection, as real impossibilities which could have been reported only by ignorant men.)
Considerations of space preclude a full discussion of miracles in general, but this distinction should be borne in mind. The miracle at present being discussed is not rejected out of hand as a physical impossibility, though that is what is usually done when pagan stories of the same kind are being considered; but the evidence for its occurrence and the reliability of the witnesses are being examined. We are prepared to consider evidence that an exception to the-apparently invariable-rule has occurred; but we are not prepared to believe that such an exception has occurred merely on the strength of a few passages in two books written at unknown dates by unknown authors -passages, moreover, contradicted by their approximate contemporaries and contradicting each other.
Next: OTHER STORIES OF VIRGIN BIRTHS