h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Seeing Mary was a virgin, before, during and after her pregnancy,
was her husband getting a bit on the side or was he a virgin as well?
If the 2nd alternative why does Mary receive all the fame and glory?

>"Seeing Mary was a virgin, before, during and after her pregnancy.."

Mary was a virgin before and during her pregnancy, but after the birth of Jesus she had some more children (Matthew 12:46+).
A certain church has a deceiving doctrine which states that she was always a virgin. This is not scriptural.


>....If the 2nd alternative why does Mary receive all the fame and glory?

Good question. In the bible Mary is not made such a big fuss of.
A certain church has a doctrine which seems to incorrectly elevate Mary to a level almost equal with God and Jesus.
She is "blessed among woman" because she bore Jesus, but apart from that she was just another spiritfilled christian like the others that first received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, (Acts 2:4), exactly as has happened to countless christians since.

The 'Rosary' also has no scriptural basis. Just another manmade doctrine derived from manmade tradition.
"Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?"- Jesus(Matthew 15:3)

Have you checked out Baalam, the most elastic man in the bible, a ripping yarn posted on my home page?

It is true the Bible does mention Jesus having brothers and sisters. Being a Catholic, we are in the understanding that it is refering to extended families. Which were common in Jesus' time.

I'm not saying that you are wrong and neither am I saying that I am right. I am meerly stating that there is another way to look at this claim of the Bible. To fully appreciate what the Bible says and means we all need to have several insights. From this do we base our own personal beliefs. Would you not agree?

Parts of the bible provide good guidelines to live your life by.

As most of it was written hundreds of years after the events chronicled it should be read as fiction, or perhaps a guide to good living, (like cooking and gardening books), not autobiography.

But hey, you believe whatever you want to. If it helps you then I am pleased for you.

One of my personal beliefs is "The sooner the Catholic Church stops treating females as second-class humans not capable of holding power positions in the church hierarchy, (apart from Mary and she's dead) the better off all of us will be."

I hear what you are saying about the Catholic church allowing women into positions of power. It is slowly happening with in some communities. However, I believe it will be a long time till we find women at the alter.

I would love to hear from a strong Catholic on their beliefs and understanding of the role of women within the church.

"As most of it was written hundreds of years after the events chronicled..."
Do you really believe that? The church fathers, who established the Canon (that the New Testament is what we have until this day), were certain that all the books contained in the N.T. are the original books written by those who claimed, and were written all before the end of the 1st century (John's Apocalyse was written last at 90 AD). Those who wrote them were all witnesses of these events (except Luke on his testament, although he gathered the information by eye witnesses with the greatest care). This has been supported until this day by all historians and theologians.
As for women's possition in the church, that is established in the Bible, and as the Church is an institution established by God we cannot change the rules of government that He has set. The same goes for the institution of marriage which is the other of the two established by God.

So the Pope seeks forgiveness for some of the horrendous crimes his world empire has committed in the name of God.
These no doubt include: the murder of innocent Christians whose only "crime" was that they possessed a bible and were simply seeking the truth; the encouragement, even today, of wars between nations, different religions - even catholic against brother catholic; and the outright crime in high places involving those within the Pope's own Vatican congregation.
With this "confession" is there now not enough evidence for the international community to haul the church before a war crimes tribunal? The International Court of justice?
If it were Saddam Hussein making the confessions would the world community merely wink at such gross injustices to humanity?
Clearly, the church has given God a bad name. If the creator is a God of justice, as the scriptures tell us, how will he punish this church - which has made a multi-national, multi-billion dollar industry out of claiming to represent him - while restoring his good name? The near future will, no doubt, prove very interesting, whether we are religious or not.

That's interesting, should all history books written today then be counted as fiction?