The Bible says…

Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, that three wise men, kings in fact, by following a star, found the baby Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem which was where Joesph had brought his family in order to be properly counted in the Roman census. Jesus birth fulfilled the prophecy that a savior would be born to a virgin in Bethlehem.

The Truth Is…

Mary was not a virgin.

From the truth of evolution, we know that humans cannot be born without the female egg being fertilized by a human male. In 6 BCE, the idea of artificial insemination was not a possibility. If Christians insist that Mary was inseminated by the holy spirit, then that makes the holy spirit the father of Jesus and not Joesph. If Joesph is not the father of Jesus, then it is not possible to trace the lineage of Jesus back to David and Abraham as is necessary for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

It is not possible to follow a star.

One of the brightest stars in the sky is Sirius which, along with Orion, was a favorite of the Egyptian priesthood for thousands of years. This is probably the star referred to in the bible because it was already well established in Egyptian religion. Also, the star would have to have been bright in order for the “wise” men to distinguish it from the billions of other stars in the totally dark (no light pollution in those days) sky.

In order for the star to appear to be moving and thereby “guiding” the kings, the star, being 8 light years from earth, would have to traverse an arc of more than 15 degrees. It is not possible for a star to change its position in the cosmos. In addition, it would have had to start its infinitely fast journey eight years before the birth of Jesus since Sirius is eight light years from earth.

The Egyptians venerated Sirius about 4000 years before the Christians did. The Egyptians had their own tale of  the coming of Osiris – the savior of Egypt – that was associated with the “Star in the East”. Hence, the “Star in the East” heralded the birth of the Egyptian Messiah thousands of years before the Christian era. This annual birth of Osiris was also a resurrection, as the goddess Sopdet “woke him from the dead.”

Jesus was born in the year 6 BCE or 4BCE, not in the year zero.

There was no Roman Census until 10 CE.