Who says the Bible is not to be taken literally?

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No way. Is that the Big Bang?
When you put it that way, it looks so simple!
 

The Friedmann Equation​

Alexander Friedmann of Russia is credited with developing a dynamic equation for the expanding universe in the 1920s.

I don’t know, I just googled “mathematical equation for the Big Bang Theory”.
 
It is an assumption that there is a “biblical timeline.” It is a Protestant tradition bolstered to some extent by archbishop James Ussher who basically added up the OT genealogies and thereby arrived at his ~6,000 year old Earth.

The question, of course, is what would make Ussher (or you or anyone else) believe that the author of the Pentateuch was merely relating history? You’d have to argue for that position. It’s not a “given.” It’s an assumption. It is much more likely, as the church fathers agree, that there is great spiritual truth being communicated in the early chapters of Genesis, not some crude timeline of history.
 
I do think that “morning and evening” come from the sun (or rather, the planet’s rotation with respect to the sun. As you are not a flat earther, it seems likely that you do too.
 
I mean, you understand they’re not just claiming this out of nowhere, right? They’re basing it on evidence and observation.

I don’t believe that God is a liar, no. But we know that He (as Jesus) had no qualms about teaching through stories that were not literally true, even saying “there was a certain man…” the way we might say “once upon a time” (when neither that man nor that time existed in reality). The Catholic Church teaches that everything the Biblical authors mean to assert as true is true, but not that every statement in every genre of literature contained in the Bible is meant to assert literal truth.
 
Are you a Protestant by chance? This sounds a lot like what I’d hear from an evangelical Protestant
 
I wouldn’t judge Catholics by my own irreverence.
The Magesterium has determined that Catholics are not required to interpret the Creation story literally. The Magesterium is guided by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To question the wisdom of the Holy Spirit is to question the wisdom of God.
 
It’s spelled out in Genesis. “Let there be light” indicates that light had just been invented. It doesn’t necessarily mean the sun was created at that moment, just that there WAS light.
God is not bound by the laws of physics. Time is irrelevant to Him. So it is perfectly plausible that the Earth was made six days. I cannot imagine a reason that God would send us the Bible and start off with telling us something that is not true. I know that God would not do that. I know that God would only tell the truth and never deceive us in any way.
 
I think you’ve taken the wrong classes . Carbon dating isn’t used to date the age of the earth. It’s only good up to about 50,000 years ago. Take some proper science classes.
 
There is nothing on Earth that is 50,000 years old. I’ve taken science classes. It doesn’t take a scientist to determine that God doesn’t tell lies. If your science class is teaching you that the Earth is millions or billions of years old, your teacher is teaching falsehoods.
 
The same people who told us the Bible is to be trusted in the first place: the Catholic Church. You seem to have a very Protestant approach to this issue. I don’t believe the Bible on its own merits… I believe the Bible because the Catholic Church tells me to believe the Bible.
 
I don’t think I’m going to do any more feeding on this topic!
 
I believe the Bible because I used to think it was fiction. I was tired of being told about he Bible so I set out to debunk it. It took about ten years of study to draw the conclusion that the Bible could not be debunked and does indeed hold the truth.
 
Dude, we have stuff made by people that is 50,000 years old, much less bones and rocks and things from before humans existed…
 
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