I was raised Catholic.
The Immaculate Conception of Christ defied all logic to me, even as a child. It seems to me, Christianity has borrowed something from the pagans.
I am reading God Against the Gods by Johnathan Kirsh~The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism
An exerpt I found interesting from the book......page 158 par 1 and 2
Of Course, the Christian belief that God begat a son by causing a woman to conceive was a notion that their fellow monotheists-the Jews-found alien and offensive. Jewish theology held that God might endow a man or woman with the power of prophecy or appoint a king or conqueror to perform wondorous feats as a messiah or "annoted one," but eh simply did not sire children, whether mortal or devine.
Ironically, the same idea was perfectly plausible to the pagans whom the Christians sought to convert to monotheism. Indeed, it is a commonplace in myth and legend of paganism-gods were both willing and able to impregnate mortal women, according to the pagan way of thinking, although mortal men were believed to be incapable of doing the same with a goddess. Thus, as one of the countless examples, Alexander the Great was reputed to be the flesh and blood offspring of Zues-Amon, who was said to have conveniently manifested himself in the form of a snake and engaged in sexual intercourse with Alexander's mother, much to the shock and distress of Alexander's human father.
As Christianity forged ahead, doing away with polytheism, it would not be hard for pagans to accept that God was Jesus father, born of Mary. It was already a teaching that was accepted by them.
I don't know, what say you? It seems to add fuel to the fire for me that bible stories are just stories, but I knew that, this was just interesting.
purps
...OUTLAW