Conceptio Immaculatis
Just in time for Xmas consideration, this entry from Bob Park's What's New:
1. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: NATURE FINDS A WAY TO GET THE JOB DONE.
In the quaint euphemism of the Authorized Version of the Bible, no male had "known" Flora, a female Komodo dragon, before she laid her clutch of 8 eggs at the Chester Zoo in England. The genetics of self-fertilization in lizards dictates that the hatchlings will all be male. Claims of human parthenogenesis are frequently advanced at this time of year, but confirmation has been lacking. By some weird coincidence the eggs are expected to hatch about Christmas.
Unfortunately he's committed the Protestant error of associating the idea of the Immaculate Conception with the conception of Jesus.* It was Mary, mother of Jesus, who was conceived without original sin, i.e., immaculately conceived, so that she was suitably prepared to give birth to Jesus after she had been impregnated by the Holy Spirit,# in what is properly known as the virgin birth of Jesus.**
And so the appropriately mocking tone that one adopts in talking about the parthenogenesis of these lizards should correctly refer to virgin birth and not immaculate conception. Tsk.
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*This is a remarkably widespread misconception, and I'm not the first person to correct someone else's error in the course of reporting about this selfsame lizard story.
#In traditional iconography the Holy Spirit is usually represented by a dove and, in representations of the Annunciation (Mary's receiving the news that — voila! — she is about to be pregnant by God with the Son of God), there is usually a dove seen to be hovering near Mary's ear as she receives the news from the Angel Gabriel, giving rise to the odd idea that Mary was made pregnant through her ear by a dove. I'm not making this up.
While we're on the topic of images of the Annunciation, my favorite portrayal — indeed, one of my favorite paintings — is "The Annunciation" (c. 1434) by Jan van Eyck, which I try to visit whenever we are at the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC. Its beauty and virtuosity astound me every time.
However, the Annunciation that I see right now is a reproduction of a famous Annunciation by Fra Angelico, a fresco that he painted around 1450 in San Marco, Florence. My copy is mass produced but it's a lovely image nonetheless; I got it as a souvenir on our trip to Rome in 2001. It hangs above the doorway next to which my computer sits.
**I'm not really put out by this solecism, but you'd think that if I, a mere atheist, could get it right, then perhaps those who believe in this stuff (not necessarily including Bob Park, but there are plenty of religious miscreants) could perhaps put out a little effort to get it right.
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on Saturday, 23 December 2006 at 22.02
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Believe in God though I do, I start running into difficulties with the original sin concept. Maybe it's because I tend to think that if God had intended man to be ever virtuous, He could and would have arranged it.
I suspect what He wanted was for man to voluntarily value being virtuous, all the more for sometimes, inevitably, slipping off the wagon.
The immaculate conception/virgin birth distinction is interesting. To be honest, I don't recall anyone spelling it out this clearly, or if they did I wasn't paying close attention. A bit above my pay grade, as they say.
on Wednesday, 27 December 2006 at 00.26
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Very close, SW. I'm pretty sure that theological deep-thinkers would point out that God wants us to choose to be ever virtuous, since he created humans endowed with that ever-difficult theological conundrum, free will. Free will itself is almost as challenging as that real stumper in my book, the problem of evil. But just imagine where we'd be without these things to keep theologians off the streets.
on Wednesday, 27 December 2006 at 07.13
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I learned something today.
Now I'm wondering: if Mary could be Immaculately Conceived, why not more of us? Humans follow by example so much, it seems one Immaculate Conception per generation would go a long way to giving an example to live toward. But I guess that's what Moses and the prophets are for.
on Thursday, 28 December 2006 at 00.48
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Recall one salient [alleged] fact: it is because of original sin that women experience labor pains when giving birth; had Eve never given Adam the apple — so the story goes — there would be no birthing pain. Thus, Mary is evidently the only woman in history to have given birth entirely free of labor pains. It gives an additional impetus, at least to women, to have been immaculately conceived, at least if they plan on having children. However, details seem sketchy at best on how to go about arranging for it.