Dragon virgin birth and the immaculate conception
For some reason, religious holidays bring out the odd news stories. Today, in the Times online, there is an article about a Komodo dragon who had a “virgin birth”—also known in the world of science as parthenogenesis. I am not interested in the story itself so much as in the way it is presented by the Times.
The opening sub-headlines are as follows: “Female Komodo doesn’t need a mate”; and then “Scientists say it is truly immaculate.”
Now the average person would say, OK, so? But that’s because the average person does not understand mariology in the Catholic Church. The virgin birth is about the birth of Jesus. The immaculate conception concerns Mary’s birth, in which, according to Catholic dogma, Mary was protected by the Holy Spirit from the ravages of original sin. That careful distinction was apparently lost on the Times. To confuse the virgin birth and the immaculate conception is to confuse Mary and Jesus.
As for the validity of the doctrine of the immaculate conception? None whatsoever. I find it repugnant, and just above the evangelical doctrine of inerrancy, one of the worst infiltrations of docetism into the Christian church. But that’s for another time.
The opening sub-headlines are as follows: “Female Komodo doesn’t need a mate”; and then “Scientists say it is truly immaculate.”
Now the average person would say, OK, so? But that’s because the average person does not understand mariology in the Catholic Church. The virgin birth is about the birth of Jesus. The immaculate conception concerns Mary’s birth, in which, according to Catholic dogma, Mary was protected by the Holy Spirit from the ravages of original sin. That careful distinction was apparently lost on the Times. To confuse the virgin birth and the immaculate conception is to confuse Mary and Jesus.
As for the validity of the doctrine of the immaculate conception? None whatsoever. I find it repugnant, and just above the evangelical doctrine of inerrancy, one of the worst infiltrations of docetism into the Christian church. But that’s for another time.
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