Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.
The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect âtotal accuracyâ from the Bible.âWe should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,â they say in The Gift of Scripture.
The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of the religious Right, in particular in the US.
Some Christians want a literal interpretation of the story of creation, as told in Genesis, taught alongside Darwinâs theory of evolution in schools, believing âintelligent designâ to be an equally plausible theory of how the world began.
But the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and at times conflicting stories of creation are told, are among those that this countryâs Catholic bishops insist cannot be âhistoricalâ. At most, they say, they may contain âhistorical tracesâ.
The document shows how far the Catholic Church has come since the 17th century, when Galileo was condemned as a heretic for flouting a near-universal belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible by advocating the Copernican view of the solar system. Only a century ago, Pope Pius X condemned Modernist Catholic scholars who adapted historical-critical methods of analysing ancient literature to the Bible.
[ Full Story @ TimesOnline.co.uk]
Source: TimesOnline.co.uk © 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd
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It’s a miracle! … or not … “An Italian committee is causing uproar by debunking a host of the nation’s favourite religious miracles…” … which I suppose is okay, since the Catholic Church no longer vouches for the total accuracy of the Bible… If Ten Commandments Judge Roy Moore becomes governor of Alabama, do you think he could stop future hurricanes from hitting the Gulf region with only the power of prayer…?
If Jesus tells us that we can cast mountains into the sea with our faith, why not give a hurricane a try.:)