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The list of pagan gods born of a virgin can also be found on the net:

From https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?

There are at least a few dozen instances of virgin births in history that I'm aware of, mostly of religious figures.

Eighteen hundred years before Christ, we find carved on one of the walls of the great temple of Luxor a picture of the annunciation, conception and birth of King Amunothph III, an almost exact copy of the annunciation, conception and birth of the Christian God.

Roman/Greek: Demeter and Persephone, Rhea and Zeus, Apollo

In Egypt, virgin mother Isis begat Horus

In Phrygia, Attis was born of the virgin Nama.

A nymph bathing in a river in China is touched by a lotus plant, and the divine Fohi is born.

In Siam, a wandering sunbeam caresses a girl in her teens, and the great and wonderful deliverer, Codom, is born.

In the life of Buddha we read that he descended on his mother Maya, "in likeness as the heavenly queen, and entered her womb," and was born from her right side, to save the world."

In Greece, the young god Apollo visits a fair maid of Athens, and a Plato is ushered into the world.

From Greece comes the virgin birth of Adonis, who was resurrected after being killed by a wild boar. Adonis was revered by the Phoenicians as a dying-and-rising god, and Athenians held Adonia, a yearly festival representing his death and resurrection, in midsummer.

From the Americas comes a remarkable story of the god-man Quetzalcoatl told by the Aztecs and Mayans. Not only did he have a virgin birth, but he was associated with the planet Venus, the morning star, as was Jesus. In addition, the religion built around him used the cross as a symbolic representation. Like the myths around Jesus, Quetzalcoatl said he would return to claim his earthly kingdom.

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Davidf,
There is a difference between Virgin Birth and immaculate conception, which is a Roman Catholic doctrine. The Catholics worship the Virgin, assuming she was miraculously impregnated. That is nonsense, Mary was artificially impregnated by sperm from the Davidic line to raise a king in Israel. She never had sex with a man at least not until Jesus was born to ensure she was still a virgin at Jesus birth. That ensured Jesus was the product of the Kingly Davidic line as authorised by the Priest Zechariah. Mary spends time with Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah till Joseph who had three sons is chosen to take Mary. Joseph's sons initially refuse to accept Jesus, but later became his followers. James the eldest son becomes the leader in the Jerusalem Church and writes about Jesus.

That is what Virgin Birth means! It does not mean immaculate conception.

Josephus, spruiking heresy I see. Good Sister Mary warned me at Catholic school about the pagans and the Protestants, especially those of the C of E. Who, when they weren't spruiking heresy, or bad mouthing the Holy Father in Rome, you don't bad mouth the Holy Father do you? They were doing the dirty on the good Irish folk, including those in Dublin where she came from.

//That is nonsense, Mary was artificially impregnated//

O... kay.

This would have been through the ancient Jewish IVF program, would it Josephus? Remarkably advanced, those ancient Jews. Presumably we're to ignore all those historians who tell us that the first recorded case of artificial insemination in humans occurred in the late 16th century, because all those historians are in league with the Dark Lord.

Anyway, somebody should probably tell the Christians. Protestants as well as Catholics, I'm afraid. This isn't some sectarian disagreement over doctrine; it's more a case of Josephus's very weird take on Christianity vs. mainstream Christian teachings. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that artificial insemination "dissociates the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by two persons giving themselves to one another, but one that 'entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is, in itself, contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children". The largest Protestant denomination, the Anglicans, have this to say:
"To achieve union but not children by means of contraceptives and to achieve children but not union by means of artificial insemination are both equally wrong."

It should be noted here that almost everybody, Josephus included, misunderstands the meaning of the phrase 'Immaculate Conception'. The Immaculate Conception is the conception of Mary - not Jesus - free from original sin. The virginal conception of Jesus is an entirely different matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception

I rather suspect that if this nonsense about the Immaculate Artificial Insemination isn't just some claptrap that Josephus has pulled directly from his fundament, then it is a modern invention which would have never been conceived of without the rise in assisted reproduction technology that occurred in the latter half of last century. Before that, when artificial insemination was being commonly used for livestock but not people, such an idea would have been regarded as extremely blasphemous and a disgusting mockery of the scripture as the Gospels of Luke and Matthew are quite clear that Jesus was conceived by the divine intercession of the Holy Spirit.

so so funny how the god deniers mock the virgin birth and then believe this whole complex earth came from nothing. And they have the audacity to laugh at others faith. Oh well!