A CRITICAL EYE ON MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS

Mary is the legendary mother of Jesus Christ. There is no proof that she was always a virgin and the Bible positively denies it but the Roman Church holds that she was. Though the Church says Marian apparitions cannot add to the evidence of the apostles, they always portray a Mary who claimed to be virgin and to always have been.
 
There is no evidence at all that the doctrine that she was conceived without sin was ever taught in the early Church so when Pope Pius IX proclaimed this doctrine to be revealed by God he was adding to the apostles’ teaching – a practice that Roman theology says is always wrong. Paul declared that all were sinners in Romans 3. The Church says Mary was an obvious exception along with Jesus and young children so he didn't need to mention these exceptions. So the all is not literally all. But we have no evidence that Paul thought Jesus was born sinless! And Paul writes that we are not sinners because we sin but we sin because we are sinners - we have the sin nature. Mary was not an exception for it would be centuries before a significant number of theologians would agree that she was sinless. Many doctors of the Church did not believe that she was conceived without sin. If we are sinners by nature and try to stop sinning, then we are repressing our natures and so will end up becoming mentally disturbed. Protestants say we need a born-again experience which changes our nature from sinners to children of God. This is the new birth. There is no reason to believe Mary was a born again Christian.
 
It is Catholic dogma that Mary never sinned. But even if she were conceived immaculate that doesn’t necessarily mean she remained faithful. So why should we think that Mary never sinned. She could have sinned on her deathbed – the sinlessness of Mary is just an assumption. It is something there cannot be any evidence for and yet the Church was able to make a dogma of it – proving that its teaching that no dogma can be made without getting evidence for it first to be false.
 
In Luke, Mary says that her soul glorifies the Lord and rejoices in God her saviour and that he has looked upon her in her nothingness and now all generations will call her blessed for God has done great things for her. The context is about spiritual nothingness so she denies that she is sinless and says all generations will speak of her blessings which have come in spite of her sinfulness
 
Catholicism reasons that since Mary was so special, God would not let her decay so she was assumed body and soul into Heaven meaning she is resurrected. And this is the religion that tells us about God’s ways that look so strange! God might have a reason for doing the unexpected and leaving Mary in the grave.
 
The evidence that the assumption was a late Christian fantasy proves that the papacy added a doctrine to the Christian faith and declared it revealed by God. This is against the Roman Catholic law that doctrines are to be rejected as being binding on believers that way unless the evidence or reason proves they were taught by the apostles for the Church has no authority to create new doctrine and revelation stopped with them.
 
The Church teaches that Mary was taken up into Heaven body and soul. There is no proof that this doctrine is more than just a human fantasy. We have no reason to believe that it is actually a divine revelation.