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Originally Posted by Textcritic
No, I don't think it does. In the first place, I am not convinced that immaculate conception is the automatic precursor for a form of divinity: No one wrote the rules on this, and as such it is incredibly difficult to say with certainty that ONE expression of how divinity is achieved is the exclusive way. It bears mentioning here that the immaculate conception was not always a featured doctrine of Christianity. The letters of Paul are the oldest Christian writings, and they don't know anything about it. The first gospel was the Gospel according to Mark, and it likewise shows no knowledge about Jesus's origins.
Second, the nature of Jesus's crucifixion and how that atoned for global sin is also an idea that has not always been fixed. The penal substitution model is by far the most broadly conceived version, and the one that most Christians adhere to, but it is also problematic. An alternative version of the crucifixion that was much more popular before the fourth century was the idea of Christus victor, by which the math of Jesus is a terrible tragedy, and his resurrection is an expression of God's victory over evil and the inauguration of a new age of peace and well being for mankind. So, no, there is no necessary predication on the idea that Jesus was divine (or at least the same sort of divine as God.)
There is a great deal of value for numerous Christians in the symbolic nature of the Gospel stories, and in the idea that "salvation" is mostly about human flourishing in the natural world. A much more pragmatic interpretation of the Gospel is not necessarily burdened by the intricacies of how all the theological dots connect.
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In this sense then, the Gospels are part of a guide for how humans (recognized as extremely complex) can live a good life in an inextricably difficult world. It is interesting to me that even very philosophical attempts to provide a similar path - Plato & Hobbes come to mind - eventually fall upon a state religion that even the rulers are required to abide by to some extent.
This, to me, is the key to why religion is so much more than its critics surmise and why it consistently elides their attempts to charge and criticize it rationally.