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I'm not a Catholic, but I think you are confusing what Immaculate Conception means with the Virgin birth of Jesus. You are correct. I was confusing the two. Now that I know that the two are separate things, I realize that I know even less about the whole Mary thing than I thought.

That's alright, it took me three posts to get where I am with that discussion, and I already knew they were different things. With that in mind, would you reconsider this statement of yours:

"It seems to me, that in the desperate rush to condemn the Catholic Church, many Protestants zoom in on the whole Mary thing and exaggerate and distort the teachings in order to confirm the entire basis for Protestantism, which is that the Catholic Church is false. For that reason, Protestants seem to need to believe in the most ridiculous exaggerations of Catholic teaching."

I think it is helpful if one can admit making a mistake with a broad over-generalization, it keeps the water of discussion/argument pure.

With that in mind, would you reconsider this statement of yours:

Actually, that part of my statement is not just based on the whole Mary controversy. It has been my personal experience that many Protestant types, rather than simply considering it to be another variation of Christianity, compulsively bash Catholicism and usually do so with a distorted version of some teaching or another (since my knowledge of Catholic doctrine is limited at best, I usually ask some knowledgeable Catholic after the fact). My most recent experience was with a couple of Seventh Day Adventists, who are of the opinion that the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon, etc., etc. To support that view they cited "Catholic" beliefs which later turned out to be incorrect interpretations of Catholic doctrine, at least according to my Catholic source.

That many Protestants bash Catholicism is indisputable. You can see that right here on FR. That much of that bashing is based on perceived Catholic beliefs which may not be correct interpretations of Catholic doctrine is also evident, even from the FR threads. I have also personally witnessed the compulsive need of some Protestant groups to bash Catholicism. So, I stick with my assertion that many Protestants bash Catholicism based on distorted or exaggerated interpretations of Catholic belief.