The Immaculate Conception is directly about Mary, and indirectly about Jesus. It means that Mary was congenitally free of original sin. It is not the Virgin Birth.

Thanks, but I'm still floundering. Can you explain in more detail? What made her free of original sin?

Someone more Catholic than I am may need to straighten me out -- I can't cite scripture, and I don't know if scripture overtly supports the idea. But it is required for her logistically and Catholically to be a womb worthy of god, a second Eve (also congenitally sin free).

You and I need baptism to cleanse us of sin (just like the rest of the world). But Adam, Eve, Mary, and Jesus did not.

Wikipedia on Immaculate Conception: [link]

Catholic Encyclopedia on Immaculate Conception: [link]

But it is required for her logistically and Catholically to be a womb worthy of god, a second Eve

So you mean that Immaculate Conception doesn't refer to the fact that she didn't have sex with Joseph, but that *she* was immaculate, yes?

So Mary was also a virgin birth? What made her free of original sin? t googles

It’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without the intervention of a human father; but that is the Virgin Birth. Others think the Immaculate Conception means Mary was conceived "by the power of the Holy Spirit," in the way Jesus was, but that, too, is incorrect. The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception was brought about the normal way, was conceived without original sin or its stain—that’s what "immaculate" means: without stain. The essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of sanctifying grace, and its stain is a corrupt nature. Mary was preserved from these defects by God’s grace; from the first instant of her existence she was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free from the corrupt nature original sin brings.

(from this site)

Okay. So Mary was born of a human mother and father, but by the grace of God, was free of original sin? I still don't exactly get it, but at least I'm clearer now on what it is I'm not understanding.

Cereal (with banana):

Thanks for the links, dcp. Fascinating stuff.

I'm willing to hand-wave "the radio works!" for the sake of the story, but it irks me that the shot they gave us of the hand at the instrument panel shows Boone fumbling with the wrong instrument. The knobs he touched were on the transponder. The com radio is the left side of the next box down.

I think that making Mary (a) a Perpetual Virgin, and (b) immaculately conceived was the early Church's way to counteract the stories spreading about how Jesus was the product of a pre-marriage affair of Mary's, and that Joseph was a cuckolded sap who bought his fiancee's story about an angel blah-blah-he's-the-son-of-God-I-swear!-cakes.

Also, making her the next thing to divine made her a pure vessel and gave the Church a way to explain how the Son of God could be both divine and human, instead of all-divine as other heretics (such as Marcian) said.

Here's a plausible way the writers might have used to make flight 815 crash without having it break up in mid-air:

From [link] about 3/4 of the way down:

I experienced a lengthy ground delay, before departing for Tokyo from LAX, when the preflight inspection revealed a failure in the primary pressurization control system. All major components of that vital system were replaced, but the computer still enunciated the failure code. Finally, one thoughtful mechanic suggested replacing the on/off control switch in the cockpit. That solved the problem. That switch, as all other switches in that cockpit, was subjected to excess humidity for a considerable period of time because Boeing had responded to crew complaints about “low air humidity” in the cockpit. For the first time, Boeing made a cockpit humidifier an option to the airlines, when it built the 747-400. Whether that humidifier actually helped reduce fatigue symptoms of cockpit crews, as claimed by some, is debatable because the only “evidence” is anecdotal experience. What is certain knowledge, however, is that the extra humidity gradually caused the deposit of a thin film of a chalky white substance over the entire overhead electrical control panels in those cockpits, similar to the stuff that builds up on shower walls. The defective pressurization control switch was so corroded from that substance (my conjecture is mineral deposits with possible microbial growth) that it culminated in a short circuit failure. Since the other identical switch, that controlled the secondary backup system, was just as old, it too was replaced with a new one.

It is not too far-fetched to imagine a scenario where a B-747-400 is forced to ditch in the ocean because both pressurization control switches failed on the same flight, forcing the pilots to descend to 10,000 ft. so everyone could get enough oxygen to stay alive. Flying at that altitude greatly increases the fuel consumption, per mile traveled. That, in turn, would force the pilots to divert to the nearest emergency airport which could be a very long distance away, if the failure occurred in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In theory, they could make it to an emergency airport before running out of fuel, but if any other factors (bad weather, additional equipment failure, stronger winds than forecast, etc.) intervened, the result could be an ocean ditching.

Remember the Ethiopian Airlines hijacking and subsequent ditching back in 1996? [link]

There were 48 survivors.

"as a Christian, David Fury should..."

The dangling modifier strikes again!!

This is why grammar is good, people.