But the mid-term result of their sin was to dis-grace us as a people. That is - Adam & Eve essentially said "no" to God and we became unable to ever say "yes" to Him. Our very nature is in opposition to His design for us and to His law. We have not the grace to respond to His call (until Christ, of course). We are generated after Adam and receive that fallen nature.
Why is it impossible to say yes to God? Is this a Catholic doctrine or belief and is there Scriptural support. If it is true then all of us who are Christians would have to be forced into salvation and would require the most extreme hyper-Calvinist view of predestination and election.
So now we come to Mary. Many non-Catholics (and many Catholics) believe that the Catholic position is that it would be impossible for a sinful woman to bear a sinless creature, so Mary had to be sinless. This is not so (and is demonstrably false since it would require Mary's mother to also be sinless etc. etc. etc.) Mary need not be sinless, and in fact, she certainly had committed the same types of sins all of us do. She only needs to be free from the dis-gracing nature of original sin (the stain of Adam) so that it is possible for her to say "yes" to Christ.
Mary wouldn't need to be sinless or without "original sin" if the sinful nature were passed through the human father to the child (as I believe). What do you think of this possibilty? It doesn't violate Scripture, yet does preserve the very Biblical idea that all have sinned and have the sinful nature except one, Jesus, who had no human father.
It is impossible for us to say "yes" to God in and of ourselves (but with Christ it is possible). And I believe that is less a Catholic belief than a Fundamentalist one (I'm not sure what a "hyper-Calvinist" is - the plain variety is scary enough :-) but they would probably remind you that your heart is "incurably wicked" or some such). Our nature is in total opposition to God. This is why we cannot save ourselves through "good works" done apart from Christ - because there is no such thing! No work has any merit (is in any real way "good"), if it is done from a motivation other than love for Him.
Mary wouldn't need to be sinless or without "original sin" if the sinful nature were passed through the human father to the child (as I believe). What do you think of this possibilty? It doesn't violate Scripture, yet does preserve the very Biblical idea that all have sinned and have the sinful nature except one, Jesus, who had no human father.
I don't particularly like the idea (although I think you may find RnMomof7 interested in it). For one thing. They're talking about being able to create life without any genetic material from a male (some kind of cloning offshoot where the child would have two mothers and no father). It appearently works. By your theory we would be creating heavenly children without the stain of original sin. The feminists will have a field day! :-)
Also, I have always thought that the "seed of the woman" refered to Christ because He was the only child born of a woman without a natural father (normally the bearer of the seed) and it would be the only case where ther might be a "seed of the woman". I have read some Hebrew scholars debate this point. If that is so, the rest of us receive the seed of Adam (and his fallen nature), Christ did not. He did not have any generations of the flesh for us to inherit, so we must be re-generated in the Spirit.
Can you explain this belief in a little more detail? How did you arrive