Also, I know I'm opening a can of worms by saying this, but I find it difficult to take Holy Scripture literally in scientific matters. Take for example this passage from Genesis 1, 14:
On first glance, this sounds like a description of Sun and Moon in the poetic style of Genesis by a terrestrial observer. As we now know, the Moon is only reflecting light and isn't a light source per se, so how can this passage be taken literally? The same problem applies to all the other arguments regarding flat Earth, the Earth dome, Geocentrism and so on.
No Dankward, you are not opening a can ofg worms, you are simply expanding the debate to one of the most important subjects that has arison from the historical submission of churchmen and secularism that the Catholic Church was wrong in its defence of Biblical (and visual) geocentrism up to the 18th century when it was falsely believed that heliocentrism was proven true by Newton, stellar aberration and stellar parallax and later by Foucault's Pendulum.
The new DOGMA that arose from the above illusion was spelled out by Pope John Paul II when addressing his Galileo Commission findings in 1992.
‘(12): Let us recall the celebrated saying attributed to Cardinal Baronius “In fact, the Bible does not concern itself with the details of the physical world, the understanding of which is the competence of human experience and reasoning.”’ --- Pope John Paul II’s Galileo Commission address, 1992.
In fact, the above hermeneutics is Protestant, invented by the reformer Rheticus as we read below to save his Biblical changes.
‘Before he left Varmia in 1541 [when Cardinal Baronius was 3-years-old] Rheticus had composed his own small tract to demonstrate the absence of conflict between heliocentrism and the Bible…. He went on to make a distinction that is still part of the faith-science dialogue: In the Bible the Holy Spirit’s intention, declared Rheticus, is not to teach science but to impart spiritual truths “necessary for Salvation.” Moreover, whatever descriptions of nature that do appear in the Scriptures, they are “accommodated to the popular understanding.”’ (Dennis Danielson: The First Copernican, Walker & Co., 2006, p.108.)
In Pope Benedict XV’s 1920
Spiritus Paraclitus it says
‘Their notion is that only what concerns religion is intended and taught by God in Scripture,’ and that all the rest -- things concerning “profane knowledge,” the garments in which Divine truth is presented -- God merely permits, and even leaves to the individual author’s greater or less knowledge. Small wonder, then, that in their view a considerable number of things occur in the Bible touching physical science, history and the like, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress in science. Some even maintain that these views do not conflict with what our predecessor laid down since - so they claim - he said that the sacred writers spoke in accordance with the external - and thus deceptive - appearance of things in nature .’
So, who are Catholics to believe, the Protestant Rheticus, Cardinal Baronius, Pope Benedict XV, or a papal Commission?
For Tradition and the Fathers, Genesis was a virtual treasure trove of divine, historical and natural knowledge (scientia). It tells of the supernatural creation of the world and all in it, from to the perimeters of genetics with all its ‘kinds’ including the creation of man and woman. It has the only history of the Antediluvian races from Adam and Eve and their longevity that harmonises with cutting-edge genetics and astronomy. It records the universal deluge of Noah caused by God which in turn explains how the topography of the Earth formed as now witnessed; with vast plains and mountains of sedimentary and igneous rock deposited around the Earth, and why billions of mixed fossils are deposited in them, every one non-changing perfect kinds as Genesis records.
‘In the field of science the Bible also triumphs continuously over any form of criticism. Both, astronomy, geology and other areas of science support the Bible. The Bible mentions, among other things, scientific objects that were discovered by man only centuries later….. For example, according to medical science there is a piece of wear-resistant skin on the enamel of our teeth called the ‘cuticula dentis’ (Job 19:10). This has been discovered only recently….
In Genesis (17:12) and Leviticus (12:2-3) God orders every boy of eight days old to be circuмsized. On the eight day [modern science found] the coagulating factor prothrombin is more profused in the blood than at any other point in life. Vitamin K, which is of extreme importance in this regard, reaches its peak on the eight day (see The New Directory of Thought, 1954, p.534)….
Many critics have mocked the text in Leviticus (11:6) wherein it is said the hare is a ruminant [cud-chewing animal]. In 1940, the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (pp.159-163) for the first time in history described and confirmed the amazing way in which rabbits and rabbit-like animals ruminate.’(Robin de Ruiter: Worldwide Evil and Misery: Mayra Publications, 2008, p.25.)
To our knowledge, no matter how many say the Bible wasn’t written to teach us anything more than ‘how to get to heaven,’ no science, no anthropology, archaeology or anything has ever shown mundane references in the Bible to be untrustworthy in any sphere, whether in its age of the world, its geocentrism, the ‘vapours’ of the sun, the shape of the Earth (Is.40:18-22), its floodwater-caused geology, its water cycle (Eccles.1:7), its fixity of kinds, diversity of species, assessments of nutrition, methods of generation, its sanitation laws (Deut. 23:12-14), its rules for quarantining (Lev.13:1-5) and other references.
I will get to light next.