[Moderating]
No idea why this was in the Pit in the first place. Off to IMHO with it.
[/Moderating]
If anyone cares, my problem with the Immaculate Conception is that it makes Jesus’s virgin birth unnecessary. If God can just have a kid be born without sin, why wouldn’t he just do that with his own kid, and not have to take it back a generation? There’s no reason he couldn’t just have him born of a sinful woman, yet still keep him from inheriting original sin.
It’s even theologically sound. Original sin is stated to come from Adam, not Eve. (Eve was tricked by the Snake, but Adam was not.) This can easily mean it passes patrilinearly. Sure, women inherit original sin from their father, but they don’t pass it on. So Jesus, not having a Man as a father, didn’t get original sin passed to him, and thus was capable of living a sinless life from birth.
With Mary also being free from Original Sin, we have the problem of explaining how without it just being another miracle. And again, if it’s just another miracle, why not just use that miracle on Jesus himself instead? Or let Mary die for our sins.
If anyone cares, my problem with the Immaculate Conception is that it makes Jesus’s virgin birth unnecessary. If God can just have a kid be born without sin, why wouldn’t he just do that with his own kid, and not have to take it back a generation? There’s no reason he couldn’t just have him born of a sinful woman, yet still keep him from inheriting original sin.
It’s even theologically sound. Original sin is stated to come from Adam, not Eve. (Eve was tricked by the Snake, but Adam was not.) This can easily mean it passes patrilinearly. Sure, women inherit original sin from their father, but they don’t pass it on. So Jesus, not having a Man as a father, didn’t get original sin passed to him, and thus was capable of living a sinless life from birth.
With Mary also being free from Original Sin, we have the problem of explaining how without it just being another miracle. And again, if it’s just another miracle, why not just use that miracle on Jesus himself instead? Or let Mary die for our sins.
I think it’s less Mary vs. Jesus but rather Mary vs. Paul. Marian Catholicism being more emotionally based in things like love, charity, compassion, etc and Pauline Catholicism being more legalism, structure and the fire & brimstone stuff. The former aspects appealing a lot more to some people than the latter.
I realize that doesn’t answer why a person may choose to pray to Mary over Jesus although I think it’s related but it’s too late at night for me to get into the weeds and theological debates here are always a waste of time anyway.