Two points:
1. Since when is science the final arbiter of all truth? It never has been. Science is the observation and application of natural laws... it doesn’t deal with philosophical and metaphysical truth.
2. The creation story in Genesis isn’t told as a science manual. It is a true story of God’s love and our beginnings told from the perspective of a Father to His children. When it was originally told, we were told in such a way that man could understand. Just as you simplify the complex for your young children, so God did for us. This doesn’t make it false. Rather, it is full of meaning and truth... just not from a scientific, literal reading.
For example, consider what was done on each of the six days. In the beginning, the Earth was without form and void. On the first three days, God made the form (light from dark; sea from sky; dry land). During the next three days He filled these forms in order (sun and moon; fish and birds; plants and animals). This isn’t science... it is more than that.
“1. Since when is science the final arbiter of all truth? It never has been. Science is the observation and application of natural laws... it doesn’t deal with philosophical and metaphysical truth.”
Science isn’t the final arbiter of all truth. I’m not sure what that has to do with anything though. The Pope seems to want to make Genesis compatible with science, by explaining that Genesis isn’t a truthful account. So, if anyone is holding science out as a higher standard of truth, I’d say it was the Pope.
“2. The creation story in Genesis isn’t told as a science manual. It is a true story of God’s love and our beginnings told from the perspective of a Father to His children. When it was originally told, we were told in such a way that man could understand. Just as you simplify the complex for your young children, so God did for us. This doesn’t make it false. Rather, it is full of meaning and truth... just not from a scientific, literal reading.”
Yes, it does make it false, strictly speaking. When I tell a child that the Tooth Fairy will come and put money under their pillow for their teeth, I am lying to them. I may think that I am doing it out of love, or some other kindly motivation, but I am still not telling them the truth. So, the assertion that you, and the Pope are making is essentially calling God a teller of “tall tales”, to put it mildly.