Just to clear something up. I'm learning more about the Catholic Church's religion from this thread, so that's helpful.
I'm told that Mary was apparently born without "original sin" and that that is the source of the "Immaculate Conception." However, my claim that she was pregnant (of course if there's even a grain a truth in the story of the birth of Jesus, and if he actually existed) not because God magicked an egg to self-germinate inside her, but because she'd done the dirty and was trying to cover it up by claiming "Goddidit," as is claimed by the whole "
Blessed Virgin" nonsense.
he Mother, of God, Mother of Jesus, wife of St. Joseph, and the greatest of all Christian saints. The Virgin Mother was, after her Son, exalted by divine grace above all angels and men. Mary is venerated with a special cult, called by St. Thomas Aquinas, hyperdulia, as the highest of God's creatures. The principal events of her life are celebrated as liturgical feasts of the universal Church. Mary's life and role in the history of salvation is prefigured in the Old Testament, while the events of her life are recorded in the New Testament. Traditionally, she was declared the daughter of Sts. Joachim and Anne. Born in Jerusalem, Mary was presented in the Temple and took a vow of virginity. Living in Nazareth, Mary was visited by the archangel Gabriel, who announced to her that she would become the Mother of Jesus, by the Holy Spirit.
On the
Immaculate Conception idea, for the benefit of other people reading this thread:
It’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without the intervention of a human father; but that is the Virgin Birth. Others think the Immaculate Conception means Mary was conceived "by the power of the Holy Spirit," in the way Jesus was, but that, too, is incorrect. The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception was brought about the normal way, was conceived without original sin or its stain—that’s what "immaculate" means: without stain. The essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of sanctifying grace, and its stain is a corrupt nature. Mary was preserved from these defects by God’s grace; from the first instant of her existence she was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free from the corrupt nature original sin brings.
When discussing the Immaculate Conception, an implicit reference may be found in the angel’s greeting to Mary. The angel Gabriel said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28). The phrase "full of grace" is a translation of the Greek word kecharitomene. It therefore expresses a characteristic quality of Mary.
The traditional translation, "full of grace," is better than the one found in many recent versions of the New Testament, which give something along the lines of "highly favored daughter." Mary was indeed a highly favored daughter of God, but the Greek implies more than that (and it never mentions the word for "daughter"). The grace given to Mary is at once permanent and of a unique kind. Kecharitomene is a perfect passive participle of charitoo, meaning "to fill or endow with grace." Since this term is in the perfect tense, it indicates that Mary was graced in the past but with continuing effects in the present. So, the grace Mary enjoyed was not a result of the angel’s visit. In fact, Catholics hold, it extended over the whole of her life, from conception onward. She was in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence.
Just more supernatural nonsense, claiming that she, herself, was conceived without her parents doing "naughty stuff" which those of us who don't believe in magical sky fairies know is completely impossible.
Just coming back to the conception of Jesus. Again, theists will just wave this way with their "with God all things are possible" nonsense, but because it's the father who decides the gender of the child, had Jesus been conceived without the input of a human man, and merely generated by his mother, he would've been a girl. Hmmmmm, which makes me think, all that compassion, turning away from the violence of the Old Testament, maybe he was a woman. But that's another whole argument for another thread.
A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation. - Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE - 43 BCE)
by 
Loose? 
