“He isn’t calling Genesis a fairy tale, but the inspired word of God written in a way to communicate the truth about creation and life.”
He didn’t call it a fairy tale in so many words, but his implication amounts to the same thing. If he doesn’t believe that God actually formed Adam and Eve from the dust of the ground and breathed life into them, then he thinks it’s a fairy tale. A fairy tale may be a method to communicate moral lessons and such, but it is not a method to communicate truth in any strict sense of the word.
“Secondly, what is your belief of Genesis?”
I believe it is the Word of God, and, since God doesn’t lie, it is a truthful account and not a fairy tale.
Pope Benedict didn’t call it a fairy tale, you did.
What he said was: “The biblical account of creation isn’t a textbook for science.”
Genesis, as I stated previously, is the inspired Word of God. It is eternally true.
Like any other book in the Bible, there are parts to be read literally, and parts that are read allegorically. In both cases they are true and inerrant.
Consider John 6:56:
For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. [57] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. [58] As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. [59] This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever. [60] These things he said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum.
Is that passage to be taken literally or figuratively?
Instead of looking for a fight whenever the Pope speaks, maybe you should read his statements with an open mind.
At a minimum, he is a school trained Bible scholar and theologian.
So from the Bible, were fruit trees created before or after God created man?