If the Virgin Mary was a perpetually a virgin her entire life, then how did Jesus have brothers and sisters?

Mary was an unmarried virgin when she was pregnant with Jesus, God put the life of his son in her womb. Her fiancee Joseph was going to secretly break up with her because he though she had cheated on him and slept with someone else since he had not had sex with her. He was told in a dream by an angel that God wanted him to marry her anyway because she had been faithful. AFter Jesus was born, they lived the rest of their lives like any other normal married couple and had other children after Jesus, literal naturally concieved children.

The idea that Mary is a prepetual virgin is incorrect.

Well, she was the spouse of the Holy Spirit first, so St Joseph would be breaking the law if he ever consummated their "marriage", which as far as I can tell, was one of convenience. (the bible never actually says they got married.) So if they were only engaged throughout their life together, I would doubt that any God-fearing man of that day would take advantage of her.

(Besides that, it is said from other sources that St Joseph was so much older than she was, that he was embarrassed about the engagement, and as soon as he took her into his home, he left for six months to work on a project)

As for those men who were the brothers of Jesus, they may have been brothers from a previous marriage that St Joseph had before he met Mary, or they may have been adopted. There was no distinguishing word in that language for those types of relationships.

Even the word for "cousin" in certain languages literally means "other brother" or "other sister"

Lots of people question this. Many people do not understand because they limit God.

I was raised a Catholic (am now an agnostic theist) but we were never taught that Jesus had literal brothers and sisters.

Catholics don't mean they were actual siblings.

According to them, Mary was a virgin and she conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's false outside teaching (perpetually a virgin ) - not in the Bible and indefensible.

Edit@: I certainly understand your concern. But we must choose our battles and in a place like YA, you can spend all your time correcting misinformation put out there by atheists. So...for me it's best to stick to the essentials of faith. If Catholics believe that Jesus was the Son of God, that He died for our sins and was raised from the dead...If Jesus is their Lord and Savior, they are saved. Now, that doesn't mean I will sit by and say nothing when the Pope says there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, and only the Church can forgive sins. See? You gotta pick your battles by what is essential.

The Word alone, Christ alone, through Faith alone.

Mary was the mother of Jesus...true. But joseph was his STEPfather...

Mary was made pregnant by God's power...the holy spirit.

The holy spirit is NOT a person or is it equal to God.

Neither is Jesus equal.

(Philippians 2:6) who, although he was existing in God’s form, gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God.

Brothers and sisters of Jesus were all offspring of Joseph and Mary...she was no longer a virgin.

Also, Jesus is NOT Almighty God so Mary could NOT be the " mother of God'.

The RCC has it wrong.

The original words translate to kinsmen. They are indeterminate as to whether they refer to actual brothers or to cousins or other relatives. For example, at one point in the old testament, Laban is called Jacob's brother, when he is actually his uncle.

St. Thomas Aquinas gives three reasons for Mary’s perpetual virginity: First, Jesus is the Only-Begotten of the Father, so it was becoming that he should be the only-begotten of his Mother. Second, Mary’s virginal womb is the shrine of the Holy Spirit, wherein he had formed the flesh of Christ; wherefore it was unbecoming that intercourse with man should desecrate it. Third, this is derogatory to the dignity and holiness of God’s Mother: For she would seem to be most ungrateful, were she not content with such a Son.

Other defenses of Mary’s perpetual virginity may be found in the writings of Origen, St. Ambrose, St. Peter Chrysologus and St. Ildefonsus of Toledo.

The fact of the matter is that after the arranged marriage by the deity Christians, or in this specific case Catholics, Joseph and Mary had sex with each other. End of story. Unless they adopted, which is unlikely, then she was not a virgin her whole life.

A *virgin* was not just a word that described a girl/woman that had not had *sex*, it also referred to a girl who was NOT yet married.... So Mary was in fact NO LONGER a *virgin* after she married... And , IF people knew the Bible, how important *sex* was between husband and wife, according to God's own words, they would know it would be spiritually IMPOSSIBLE for a man and woman to be married and NOT have sex.... God would NOT expect nor demand that of any couple....

What is most unacceptable is the writer claims that Joseph dreamed that dream and a few other dreams also. Joseph never talked to the writer, so that dream is made up by the writer and why would I believe the writer. But Joseph and Mary and all connected with the invented composite character Jesus were fictional persons. But for the fun of answering your question, a stark brought the other kids.

Mary was a virgin when she bore Jesus. Later on during His life, she had other children too so no, she wasn't a virgin her whole life.