Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/14/snake-62-lays-eggs-without-h.html
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I thought everyone knew this since the original Jurassic Park.
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I, for one, welcome the immaculate conception of Snesus, or Snake Jesus. Are you prepared to follow Her as She slithers to Heaven?
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I was today-old when I realized snakes could live to be 62 years old, or even 42.
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Hell yeah!
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I read about this happening to another zoo snake a few decades ago, so it’s not really news. Rare, but known. Whether humans ever reproduce via parthenogenesis is controversial - no cases have been verified by researchers, and while some have claimed it’s possible, others claim it’s not. But there have been very rare reports over the last couple of thousand years of women living apart from men who have given birth to female babies - and parthenogenesis can only result in female offspring.
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Now that Snesus is here, we must stop taking antihistamines, they have become blasphemous.
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immaculate conception (my words)
Wrong words. The doctrine of “immaculate conception” refers not to Mary conceiving Jesus but rather to the decade-and-change earlier event in which Mary herself was conceived. It was “immaculate” not because it didn’t involve sex – it did – but because Mary, unlike all other humans, was not guilty of the “original sin” everybody inherits from Adam.
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Nevertheless, Sneasus was immaculately conceived.
Christian sectarian theology does not control the meaning of normal English words like “immaculate”. Some christians tried to co-opt it as a technical term, but it’s just a normal word to everyone else. And a snake reproducing parthenogenetically is about as immaculate a conception as you can get.
And Adam (who wasn’t one of my ancestors) didn’t leave me anything when he died - no property, no last words, no original sin. I inherited my lack of original sin from a long line of eukaryotes who eschewed magic, and instead decided to evolve for a few billion years.
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Username checks out.
So you’re basically saying that inheriting original sin has nothing to do with fucking, that is actually good news.
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The phrase “immaculate conception” is an explicit reference to Christian sectarian theology. You don’t have to believe it – I sure don’t – but you can’t use it as a reference if you don’t understand what you’re referring to.
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Maybe for mammals and the like, but for Komodo dragons for example, XX is male.
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Blasphlegmous?
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came here for this. Thanks
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Your average Gallus gallus domesticus hen can manage feat this roughly every 26 hours with no problem and with no male involvement. If the snake’s eggs hatch then you’ve got something for the herpetologist’s record books. Get back to me…
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Well, yes and no. Your initial post seemed to claim that any use of the words “immaculate conception” as a descriptor has to refer to a situation which has an isomorphic relationship to that particular christian sectarian religious story. You called the original poster’s use of the words “wrong”. But their use was not wrong, it was perfectly good standard English.
It’s incontrovertibly true that Snesus was conceived immaculately. The conception was perfectly clean, neat and tidy. Praise Snesus!
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blah blah evolutionary biology blah blah blah asexual reproduction blah blah Komodo dragons blah blah blah facultative parthenogenesis blah blah etc. etc.
Stop calling the Biology department and get on the horn to the Anthropology department, or maybe Classical Literature. Because this is some end-times omen shit and we need to figure out which ancient papyrus tells us what’s going to happen AFTER the dying snake-goddess lays her seven eggs.
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Like @anon81034786, I too came here for this and thank you for your service. This thread would not have been the same without this GIF appearing first in the comments.
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I’m going to feel really bad when they nail snake Jesus to a lower-case ‘l.’
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I’m glad I got in early and could provide the result that so many required to fulfill the dictates of “appropriate post commentary.” 
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