[scripter]

"Poetic" was a bit of hyperbole on my part. I used it because of the descriptiveness of the wording. I do consider it an allegory, though.

I have no idea what the Roman Catholic church teaches so I have to ask... Does the Roman Catholic leaders teach Genesis as allegory, is it something you studied yourself and came to that conclusion, or something else?

[Junior]

I initially came to the conclusion myself. The Pope, in 1996 issued a decree that evolution was not incompatible with Biblical teachings (which implies the Pope considers it an allegory). My wife is a Catholic in training, and the Bishop at one of our recent get-togethers addressed the inerrancy of Scripture and came off implying that Genesis is much more a roadmap of man's relationship to God and vice versa than a literal scientific text. All in all, the Church never comes out and says it in so many words, but that's the message it's getting across.