Virgin birth in other religions and relevance to Christianity Like flood legends, legends of heroes of virgin birth and/or virginal conception are not uncommon in faiths across the world.  For example, the Bhagavata Purana tells that Krishna was conceived without sex.  There are many others.

When I was coming up in sunday school and reading Christian literature as a young adult, I remember that the virginal conception was taught to be a pretty special thing about Jesus.  I don't believe I ever heard that this concept was found in other faiths.  It was as if the very uniqueness and absurdity of this claim was enough to show it was true and proved Jesus was divine.

With the flood stories or other ideas which are found in other faiths, the other faiths' stories are often seen as corroborating the biblical account.  This could make sense because those stories could be seen as coming after the biblical event or concept.  But since most of the stories of sexless conception pre-date Christ (though of course not all), they are somewhat different.

Is there anything a Christian might take away from the fact virgin births are found in other beliefs?  Perhaps some kind of global prophecy?  Or is it no more relevant than the fact faith healing and resurrection are also found in other faiths?

(also, didn't find very good tags for this, help if you can)
On other "virgin births" predating the concept of a virgin birth in Christianity:

The notion of the virgin birth in Christianity predates the actual birth of Christ too; it was prophesied explicitly some centuries earlier. Certainly in Isaiah, we have:

Isaiah 7:14 (MSG):


  So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A
  girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She'll bear a son
  and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us)


In addition, the fact that this verse in Genesis (known as the Protoevangelium*) talks of "her offspring" when it was/is more usual to refer to the offspring of a couple as being of the father rather than the mother, is interpreted by some theologians as a prophecy, or at the very least a hint, of a virgin birth:

Genesis 3:15 (MSG):


  God told the serpent:     "Because you've done this, you're cursed, 
        cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals,     Cursed to slink on your belly 
        and eat dirt all your life.     I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, 
        between your offspring and hers.     He'll wound your head, 
        you'll wound his heel."


Because this happens right at the beginning of the human race, arguably this reference to virgin birth predates all others (although it is of course less explicit in meaning than the Isaiah prophecy).

Relevance of other virgin birth stories to Christianity

Because there is that hint of a virgin birth right at the beginning of things, the comparison you draw to flood legends is a good one. It is logical that any culture with a collective recollection of the Flood may also have a collective recollection of the events before it; the Creation and the Fall, in which we find the Protoevangelium. In that respect the relevance of legends of virgin births to Christianity is similar to the relevance of flood legends to Christianity.

*Not to be confused with the Protoevangelium of James