>And you don't think the frightened, pregnant girl, out of wedlock, is a more likely explanation then the immaculate conception?
Haha, a practical application of Occam's Razor.
It sure sounds like a possible explanation. But then again, wasn't Mary already married when she got pregnant? At least, that is what the Gospels state, IIRC.
Anyway, the point is that the the importance of the entire question of whether this particular miracle - or any other miracle for that matter - happened, in the case of Christ, has been exaggerated.
About the question of miracles in general, one Mirza Abul-Fadl (a Bahá'í scholar) wrote something in the sense of:
If you want to buy a tyre, you will look at the quality of the tyres, and not judge the vendor by his ability to convert plain tyres into gold tyres.
Similarly, a teacher should be judged by what He teaches, not by the miracles He performs!
(Paraphrased, from memory, from "Miracles and Metaphors", by Mirza Abul-Fadl.)
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
