Virgin Birth

I had a very simple thought yesterday about a significant component of our contemporary pagan culture that is in direct opposition to the virgin birth of Christ.

Whereas the Virgin Mary gave birth to life without having sexual intercourse, the current trend is to have sexual intercourse without producing life (thwarting the development of life by use of various contraceptives or exterminating life through abortion).

Mary allowed her life to be reshaped by this gift of birth whereas the modern trend is to not allow life-making (the natural outcome of sexual intercourse) to interfere with one's lifestyle. People want the orgasms without having to take on the responsibility of child raising that naturally accompanies such activity.

This has led me to a more general train of thought. It is quite curious the extent to which our culture appears to set itself up to be the precise opposite of Catholic Christianity, but then paganism always was in direct opposition to Judaism and Christianity.


The simple choice is between:
a) voluntarily doing what is morally right, and
b) simply being compelled to obey physical urges, the natural outcome of which is to become enslaved by them.

Do you wish to live in a world of:
a) people willingly sharing and giving, or
b) people taking what they want by force.

Free will can only exist in a world where we consciously temper our temporal desires and are prepared to actively conquer our weaknesses. We should aim to go from strength to strength in the knowledge that whenever we stop fighting we will inevitably slip into decline. It is a battle of mind over matter - of hope over fatalism - of virtue over vice. Lasting joy comes from prudently conquering one's short-sighted physical self for the sake of the greatest good. Without such self-mastery there can be no heroes or heroines.