The vibe i pick up from the story of the birth of Jesus is -

Mary was having it off with Joseph, they were unmarried, he gets her up the duff so to escape the shame of having a child conceived out of wedlock she claims he's the "son of god".... yeah good one if its true, Mary.

Coincidentally, my "best friend's name is Mary". She was NOT a virgin... but she always told me the truth when I had the courage to ask.

Was Mary a liar? I suppose each one of us has to decide for ourselves. The thing about life is: universal truth cannot be taught... it must be experienced.

Yeah, I expect they were a bit frisky one night, and then realised that getting stoned to death or whatever barbaric punishments were in effect wasn't a good option, so they make up some hilarious story (hey, and I can understand what they did - I wouldn't want to get stoned to bloody death!), and hey, an entire religion spawns out of it.

Bloody marvellous if you ask me

Muslims believe Jesus (Isa) was a fatherless birth and hold Mary (Maryam) as one of the most pious and chaste women ever.

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Good for them.

I'll stick with my theory. It makes sense.