Replies

"Neither was "created" (as we think of it) from nothing, their matter already existed. But they could not be seen until the plants cleared up the atmosphere."

Sorry, whether you think they were created from nothing or made from existing material, the verse says they were 'made', not made visible.

"Then again, I could argue that this means that plants (now thought to be "only" 3 some-odd billion years old) were actually already present before the moon's collision at around 4 billion some-odd years ago.

Do you think that's why the Book says, "...and there was evening and morning..." so that you could fit billions of years in there?

"We shall see. Science has been wrong before in confirming what the Book already said.

And is wrong now. That's why you should not accept science first and the Book second.

Welllllll, that depends on how the Bible is interpreted.

Catholic teaching holds that it is divinely inspired, absolute Truth in matters of Faith and morals, but composed of many different forms of literature: Songs, poems, parables, stories, histories and tales, lists of Kings and judges, genealogies, laws, eyewitness accounts, letters, etc.

The story of Genesis is one of many stories telling how and why and what God created. Thus, in the Catholic teaching, I do not need to explain what is meant by the "morning and evening of ..." but rather just let the story reveal the glory that God created. It (genesis) does not need to mention the details of the story of creation, the Book merely reveals that creation happened - and now, finally, science has evolved to the point of being able to tell us the same thing. (It's about time they caught up.)

It says, for example, that life was formed from the earth: If God chose to do that by manipulating molecules and atoms, it's rather easier to believe that than that random lightning strikes somehow created life.