Posted on 02/07/2013 6:26:00 AM PST by Alex Murphy
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The biblical account of creation isn't a textbook for science, Pope Benedict XVI said.
Instead, the first chapter of Genesis reveals the fundamental truth about reality: that the world is not the result of chaos, but is born of and continually supported by God's love, the pope said Feb. 6 at his weekly general audience.
In a series of Year of Faith audience talks about the creed, Pope Benedict touched on the description of God as "creator of heaven and earth."
In an age of science and advanced technology, how are Catholics supposed to understand the Old Testament account of creation that says God created the heavens and earth in six days, and rested on the seventh? the pope asked.
"The Bible isn't meant to be a manual of natural science," the pope told the estimated 5,000 visitors and pilgrims gathered for his audience. "Instead it is meant to make understandable the authentic and deep truth of all things," he said.
The creation account in Genesis reveals the fundamental truth that "the world is not a collection of opposing forces, but has its origin and steadiness in the Word, in the eternal reason of God, who continues to sustain the universe," the pope said.
The creation story also points to the fact, he said, that God has a plan for the world and for humanity, a plan that gives people "the courage to face the adventure of life with trust and hope."
It shows that everything God creates is "beautiful and good, filled with wisdom and love; God's creative action brings order, leads to harmony and gives beauty," Pope Benedict said.
God created man and woman in his image and breathed life into the human form he molded out of clay from the earth, according to Genesis, the pope said. The biblical affirmation means that humanity is not self-made or god-like, but is united by the same origin despite cultural, historical and social differences.
It also means, he said, that "we all carry in us the vital breath of God, and every human life, the Bible tells us, is under the specific protection of God."
"This is the most profound reason behind the inviolability of human dignity against every temptation to measure a person's worth using criteria of utility and power," he said.
The description of the Garden of Eden means that God gave humanity, "not a wild forest, but a place that protects, nourishes and sustains," he said.
"Man must not see the world as his own property to pillage and exploit, but as a gift from God" to safeguard and develop with respect "following the rhythms and logic" of God's plan.
But while God created "a universe of goodness, harmony and beauty," human beings freely chose to believe in lies over the truth and, in that way, that brought evil into the world, the pope said.
The symbol of the serpent reflects the "constant temptation to abandon (man's) mysterious alliance with God," he said.
The serpent doesn't reject God but instigates suspicion by suggesting that following God's word is somehow "a chain that binds, that deprives one of freedom and the most beautiful and precious things in life," the pope said.
But breaking one's relationship with God through sin destroys every human relationship, and only God, who is always reaching out with his loving hand, can restore things the right way.
"Through the saving obedience of Christ, the new Adam, God himself has justified us and enabled us to live in freedom as his beloved sons and daughters."
At the end of the audience talk, the pope greeted members of the Conventual Franciscans who recently held their 200th general chapter in Assisi. The pope urged them to show the men and women of today "the beauty of following the Gospel in simplicity and fraternity."
“.how could the creation of the Earth be explained in such a way other than in allegorical form?”
Well, how about a simplified narrative that is at the same time not factually untrue? We do that all the time when explaining things to our children, so it can’t be beyond the capacity of God to do the same.
You have a high opinion of faerie tales.
What is “untrue”?
I think God through the writer of Genesis did an amazing job of explaining the universe using the vocabulary of a bronze age shepherd.
Me? That’s not my quote.
I've asked the same question, but I came to a different answer-it's not true or divinely inspired, just a story written by a very superstitious person without any knowledge of scientific fact or reasoning.
Well, I don’t think anything in Genesis is factually untrue, but apparently the Pope does, so you should probably ask him.
God reveals Himself through His Word and through Nature. And He never contradicts Himself.
So if the Word and the Nature seem to contradict each other than either you have misunderstood Nature or you have misinterpreted the Word.
And this tension will continue until He returns.
It’s the quote of a man who doesn’t consider Genesis a faerie tale.
“just a story written by a very superstitious person without any knowledge of scientific fact or reasoning.”
Wait, when did this thread become about Al Gore and “An Inconvient Truth”?
Post of the Day!
This is very far from the pope's statement and Catholic teaching.
Some seem to try to force a false choice: science or religion. Even with good intentions this has bad results.
LOL!
I don’t think he would describe it in those terms, but that is what he is in fact describing by his statements. Which is why I said originally that I don’t think his position is intellectually consistent.
Yeah, but I'm not a chrstian, so it's all right.
Now if only the Pope would admit that the "virgin birth" isn't scientific either. Unfortunately he is a selective fundamentalist, and therefore a hypocrite.
OK
That's right, baby! Now go back to banging those "awful" Baptists over the head with Thomas Jefferson and leave me alone.
Creation is the acts of GOD!!!! Science is flesh man’s lame attempt to explain the acts of GOD!!!!!
???
So the Gospels are the same I suppose.
No need for Jesus to be the Christ, or rise from the dead. Anti science and all that.
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