“If sin is inherited from the father”
Why do you think this? Is there any evidence that sin is only inherited through the father?
“the Holy Spirits conception of a child in Mary would not have passed on sin as God has no sin.”
True, but there’s no evidence that sin is only passed on through the father.
“But If God could keep Mary from sin, while being born to a human set of parents, there would be no need for Christ in the first place.”
Well, no. You see, remember the other half of the atonement? Christ is the bridge between God and Man. Even if Mary were kept free from sin, she is just a woman. She is not God. She could not serve as the perfect substitutionary sacrifice on the cross.
“I think at this point the Mary thing is more a throwback to the incorporation of Ishtar and the child than anything logical or spiritual.”
If this is so, then when was Mary incorporated?
“So I suspect even within the Catholic family there is a divide on this issue. Quite interesting really.”
No, that’s not the case at all. Most cathedrals, (especially in Rome), go back for quite some time. Each cathedral is dedicated to a peculiar saint, and those saints are usually represented in the iconography.
They will all have Christ in the middle, Mary to the right, Joseph to the left, to represent the Holy Family.
We don’t worship statues, really, we don’t. They are just to honor the men and women who have followed Christ successfully, before our time.
If sin was passed through the mother, then Christ would have had sin. I would say that is evidence. And if sin is passed through the father OR mother Mary would have sin.
That then clearly says that Mary is not sinless.
Thats ok with me, Mary does not have to be sinless to be full of grace, or to be Christs mother.
But sinlessness is not “passed on” or Christ would not have had to die on the cross. The entire theme of the Bible is that the wages of sin is death, so God took the death upon Himself to free us. To negate that to make Mary sinless is pointless, unless you have some personal reason other than the Bible to justify that, it is not logical or respectful of Christs sacrifice.
I have no facination with the mother/child god thing and prefer simple bibilical Christianity.
Thanks for the talk.