From: news@cbnewsk.att.com Subject: Re: What WAS the immaculate conception Organization: AT&T Bell Labs Lines: 30 In article todd@nickel.laurentian.ca writes: >{:> Your roommate is correct. The Immaculate Conception refers to >{:> the conception of Mary in Her mother's womb. > >Okay, now that we've defined the Immaculate Conception Doctrine would it >be possible for those more knowledgeable in the area to give the biblically >or other support for it. I've attempted to come to terms with it previously >(in an attempt to understand it for learning purposes) and haven't been able >to grasp the reasoning. > It was a gift from God. I think basically the reasoning was that the tradition in the Church held that Mary was also without sin as was Jesus. As the tenets of faith developed, particularly with Augustine, sin was more and more equated with sex, and thus Mary was assumed to be a virgin for life (since she never sinned, and since she was the spouse of God, etc.) Since we also had this notion of original sin, ie. that man is born with a predisposition to sin, and since Mary did not have this predisposition because she did not ever sin, she didn't have original sin. When science discovered the process of conception, the next step was to assume that Mary was conceived without original sin, the Immaculate Conception. Mary at that time appeared to a girl named Bernadette at Lourdes. She refered to herself as the Immaculate Conception. Since a nine year old would have no way of knowing about the doctrine, the apparition was deemed to be true and it sealed the case for the doctrine. RCs hold that all revelation comes from two equally important sources, that being Sacred Scripture and Holy Tradition. In this case, mostly tradition. Joe Moore