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Pope John Paul said pretty much the same thing. The Catholic Church is indeed open to the idea that some Bible stories are allegorical, and much to its credit, it has no problem with evolution, so long as God is somehow included in the equation! Believing in God and accepting evolutionary theory do NOT have to be mutually exclusive propositions. I've always believed that to be the case.
The pope's comments about the environment are not a big surprise, either. When I was a good Catholic, having dominion over the earth to me always meant being a good steward of it, not doing with it what I want.
The Catholic church also opposed the Iraq war and is against capital punishment. It's more progressive on many issues than some of us may imagine.
Yes, I am often surprised by that sometimes. Great post YoAdrian.
OK, after rereading your posts, I think I got it now.
I see where you are coming from.
Basically, the parts of the creation story you're OK with, are literal, the parts you're not OK, with are allegory.
10-4.
Also, I'm pretty sure we actually do speak different languages. LOL
I'm personally OK with all of it, actually. But I think that science proves God, not disproves Him, and IMO a good way to explain any apparent inconsistancies would be that the language describing creation itself is figurative, and not literal.
Again, we aren't going to convince each other, and I have no problem agreeing to disagree on this issue.
I personally think the Pope's remarks were sensible and realistic. America is the only nation that has a so called debate about evolution and we're often the subject of ridicule because of it. After fighting the idea of the earth revolving around the sun for a few hundred years the Catholic church probably realizes that another couple hundred years of fighting evolution would just make them look foolish and maybe even lose followers.
1.) Some of you are confusing allegory with metaphor. Not a big deal really. I think your meaning is still coming through. Still, I'd really hesitate to call Genesis an allegory in any way. But metaphorical? You betcha.
2.) If strict creationists' view on T-rexes and other dinos is that they died out in the flood...doesn't that contradict Scripture, since God commanded Noah to take EVERY animal? Does that word "every" in Hebrew actually mean "everything but the dinosaurs and unicorns?"
3.) Some have pointed out that if we accept evolution, we must toss out the doctrine of original sin, the genealogy of Jesus, Paul's treatise on "the first Adam," etc. Not so. This is actually one point where both science and Scripture agree: Every human being on the planet today descended from one woman. Even many die-hard atheist evolutionists will defend this view. The evidence in our DNA for this fact is overwhelming. A recent article on this debate: Study stirs up debate over human origins - LiveScience - MSNBC.com
But I think that science proves God, not disproves Him, and IMO a good way to explain any apparent inconsistancies would be that the language describing creation itself is figurative, and not literal.
Sure. Although I would hasten to add that science can be wrong sometimes to -- and any honest scientist will be the first to tell you that.
The fact is that we are finite creatures who have only begun to scratch the surface of the mysteries of the universe. Both faith and science need to keep that in mind at all times. Anyone who claims that they know it all and have it all figured out -- well, they're loo-loo.
Evolution and the Word of God IMO are polar opposites and cannot and should not be reconciled together. Evolution is man's way of explaining why we're here without the need for God. Putting the two together, IMO, twists the Word of God.
Now, I suppose you have to first believe the Bible is what it claims to be: the inerrant, infallible Word of God as written by men's hand at the direction of the Holy Spirit. God was the author, man was just his pen. IMO, this does not mean it is full of errors or contradictions or twisted by men of power or translators. From my study on this subject, our current manuscripts of the Bible are 99.5% accurate to the earliest know manuscript (Is Our Copy of the Bible a Reliable Copy of the Original? ). Yeah, lots of errors, huh. So I suppose if you don't believe the Word of God is what it claims, you can tweak it all you want to allow almost anything you want to allow.
For those that believe in Jesus and his teachings, I just don't understand how you can not believe the Bible in its entirety. If one part is true, it's all true. Hence if one part is false, it's all false. You can't say the parts you agree with are true and the parts you don't agree with are "errors" or "metaphor" or "allegory". Genesis is historical narrative. It is not allegory.
Those who believe in both evolution and God of the Bible are basically equating science with the Word of God, saying science is just as reliable and infallible as God's Word, when from my point of view that is preposterous. Science is man's way of understanding the world around him. Sound emperical/operational science (like getting us to the moon and medicine) I have no real issues with.
Origins science, like evolution which tries to explain how we got here by utilizing empirical science, I don't believe. There are many, many assumptions involved in dating methods and interpreting the evidence gathered because no one was there to witness it. Evolution bases it's assumptions on no God and starts from there and gets its results which obviously conflict with Genesis. Yet, people will raise this to the same level of God's Word. Nature as we see today is not perfect. Man is not perfect.
God is perfect and God's Word says God was there in the beginning and he did it all. That's good enough for me. Also, there is sound, empirical science that when interpreted in light of the Holy Word, does not contradict the Bible but upholds what the Bible says. If anything needs tweaked, it's fallible, sinful man's idea of how we got here, not God's Word.
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