<p>Since not all of you are Roman Catholic Christians, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus, may be less well known to you. It is different from the Virgin Birth of Jesus and different yet again from the Incarnation of the Son of God. Let me start, then, with those two doctrines in order to set up the contrast clearly.</p>

Since not all of you are Roman Catholic Christians, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus, may be less well known to you. It is different from the Virgin Birth of Jesus and different yet again from the Incarnation of the Son of God. Let me start, then, with those two doctrines in order to set up the contrast clearly.

What is the Immaculate Conception?

If you’ve grown up with religion like I did, you’ve probably also felt from time to time that it just doesn’t add up.  Certain questions haunt you at two o’clock in the morning, questions that whatever group you practice your faith with tends to frown upon.  You don’t find the provincially acceptable answers at all acceptable.  But however much these questions prove to be forbidden, your mind remains unsettled.  You keep coming back to them—hesitant, worried, and sometimes even angry.  I’ve spent my life tossing away the shackles of fear and facing these forbidden questions directly.  I cannot understand why religious people should fear the truth, if the truth is supposed to set us free!  So, let it out, I say.  And I offer you here the fruits of my lifetime of labors, both in the hopes that you can profit from my struggles but also in the expectation that you might add something to inspire our other travelers still facing those anxious nights.

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If you’ve grown up with religion like I did, you’ve probably also felt from time to time that it just doesn’t add up. Certain questions haunt you at two o’clock in the morning, questions that whatever group you practice your faith with tends to frown upon. You don’t find the provincially acceptable answers at all acceptable. But however much these questions prove to be forbidden, your mind remains unsettled. You keep coming back to them—hesitant, worried, and sometimes even angry. I’ve spent my life tossing away the shackles of fear and facing these forbidden questions directly. I cannot understand why religious people should fear the truth, if the truth is supposed to set us free! So, let it out, I say. And I offer you here the fruits of my lifetime of labors, both in the hopes that you can profit from my struggles but also in the expectation that you might add something to inspire our other travelers still facing those anxious nights.

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What is the Immaculate Conception?

What is the Immaculate Conception?