[UA] Immaculate Concept

[nick wedig]

> Last night over dinner some friends and I were discussing the
> Immaculate 
> Conception.  

The Immaculate Conception refers to Mary being born without original
sin (a half-assed workaround to allow Jesus to not have original sin,
but begs the question of how Mary was born without original sin), not
the virgin birth of Jesus.

>I don't know why either.  But someone mentioned that it
> is in 
> fact scientifically possible, though highly unlikely, to have a
> immaculate 
> conception.  It requires three very specific genetic coincidences,
> which in 
> turn require something like 50 to be in order, including a particular
> kind 
> of hermaphroditism, but again, it is possible.  So unlikely, however,
> that 
> one would expect it could happen perhaps once in the course of human 
> history.
> 
> Interesting, that.

Parthenogenesis (virgin births) are awfully rare, and pretty much would
need to be female births unless, as you suggest, some genetic quirks
make Mary genetically male.

Of course, to say that Jesus's birth was the only virgin birth is to
ignore the numerous other virgin births in almost every other religion
and mythology.  It also, from what I understand, is not really
supported by the original new testament scriptures, but rather an
artifact of translating the Hebrew (or Greek, I forget) word for "young
girl" into the Latin for "virgin".

Mr. Teapot
payed attention at catholic school

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