The Guardian and Radio 4 team up for a gruesome study of the Virgin Birth

Damian Thompson
Dec 31, 2008

The Guardian/BBC (have they officially merged yet?) has produced a news story/documentary on the "science of the Virgin birth" which suggests that Mary may have suffered from various gruesome gynaecological abnormalities.

The author of the Guardian article, Aarathi Prasad, is also presenter of tomorrow's Radio 4's programme. If you follow the link, you'll notice that "the miracle of Mary's virgin pregnancy" is followed by the word corrected in bold type. This because the Guardian does not know the difference between the virgin birth and the immaculate conception: hence also the disappearance of the original headline, "Immaculate deception" (geddit?).

That's odd, given that Prasad claims to have spent "many years with nuns" contemplating the virgin birth. She can't have been paying attention...

...Incidentally, what a nice touch of Radio 4, scheduling the programme for the Catholic solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. I look forward to a programme examining the ethics of the sexual relationship between the pre-pubescent child Ayisha and the middle-aged Mohammed – scheduled, of course, for the appropriate Islamic feast day. the rest