Oh for crying out loud angryatheist, Iâve had enough with you. If you want to debate with people about Catholicism, debate with those who really have knowledge about Catholicism and Mariology, such as the apologists this same forum provides and not trying to pick on people who actually love and have devotion to Mary. You say you want an intelectual discussion; your comments say that youâre ignorant of Catholicism and Mary.
First of all, the Blessed Virgin had absolute free will in all Her actions. Every action She did was so pleasing to God was because of Her intention, otherwise if She (or any saint for that matter) acted like a puppet with strings, thereâd be no merit. It is because of this that Mary is so amazing and not what out fellow troll here claims. Mary didnât feel the least attraction to sin simply because She didnât want to engage in it and simply because She was so attracted to doing good and the love of God. Jesus Himself was tempted yet He refuted the devilâs temptations and arguments why He should sin not because He was robot but because He had the knowledge and especially the will to do good, the same with Mary; proof that Mary had absolute free will is the fact that the Angel himself asked Her on Godâs behalf whether or not She would accept becoming the Mother of God.
Now Mary as always had free will and because of this free will, She willingly became the Mother of Christ and the Mother of all men. She wasnât forced by God because that would amount to RAPE. Its undeniable that God tried to convince Her why She should become the Mother of God, just as this angry troll here is trying to convince us why Mary is an âevilâ person. Its not intruding on free will, its trying to influence it. Just as the old Eve by her own free will made us all fall, so did Mary, by Her own free will help us rise again. Hell, Her line âHow shall this be since I know not man?â indicates that She had difficulty not in believing Godâs words but in accepting this huge responsibility if it meant losing Her virginity.
There are a few arguments atheists will bring up such as:
-But God knew that Mary was going to become the Mother of God so based on the future He decided that She would be the Mother of the Messiah because, you know, you canât fight fate! God KNOWS the future, He doesnât read it. If God did things on what He was saw going to happen in the future, that would mean that the future influences God and not God who influences the future. Hence, while He knew Mary was going to become the Mother of God, He didnât sit back and do nothing, He prepared Her for this role form the before She existed and because of this preparation and choice, He loved Her more than the rest.
Not only that but Mary was extremely intelligent Herself. She spent 12 years at the temple of Jerusalem as a temple virgin and anyone with half a brain knows that Mary knew about sex from Her comment about not knowing men. Donât tell me She didnât talk about sex when She made that comment. Matthew uses the same expression in the first chapter of his gospel to show Joseph didnât know Her and the fact She took a vow of virginity shows that She wanted to abstain perpetually from carnal pleasure. While ignorant people can be innocent, the idea ignorance was associated with innocence is just flawed. Saint Thomas was promised by God and Mary that he would never suffer sexual temptations after he resisted them so much, yet his summa is often filled with things such as whether a woman can have sex when sheâs menstruating (in fact, some of these parts of the Summa were removed in the Leontine edition. You can read them here actually: newadvent.org/summa/5064.htm, and Hildegard of Bingen was one of the first women to write about female sexuality. She was born in 1098.
By the way angryatheist, you said you were surprised your thread calling us Catholics out on our BS as you put it lasted this long. Guess what? I did the same thing with those smug snakes on the atheist experience where I refuted Philip Pullmans obnoxious depiction of the Blessed Virgin as one who could be easily seduced if an ordinary man called himself an angel and the next day, they banned me form their channel. Besides, I troll other atheist and protestant channels all the time, not with trying to insult or confuse them but by giving valid arguments on why they are wrong and doing actual research, something which you yourself fail to give when you speak on catholicism and especially Mary. And while my comments sound harsh, I donât want to demean anyone. With who give deliberately flawed logic, some harshness is necessary. As Dawkins put it, donât critcize what youâre so ignorant of.