Is Genesis 1-3 to be taken literal?
It’s only fitting that the first topic I blog about is about the first book of the Bible. People often point to the story of creation in Genesis as proof that God doesn’t exist or the Bible isn’t true due to it not correlating with the teachings of modern science. What most people don’t know who say that-including some Christians, is that the first 3 chapters of the Bible aren’t to be taken only in a literal sense but in a symbolic one. I know this can be confusing and against everything you may have been taught, but if you are anything like me and got hung up on accepting the story of creation as a scientific truth then this might be able to help you understand better.
The Catechism says “God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine ‘work’ concluded by the ‘rest’ of the seventh day.* On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation,* permitting us to “recognize the inner nature, the value, and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God.”* - II. The Visible World, CCC 337.”
The creation story of Genesis was written at a time where there were many creation stories circling around involving multiple Gods, stating that we were created out of chaos instead of the truth, rather than one God out of love. The Bible isn’t a science book it is a religious book and the main purpose of the creation story was to get the point across that one God created the world and everything in it.
The great Pope St. John Paul II says this;
"Cosmogony and cosmology have always aroused great interest among peoples and religions. The Bible itself speaks to us of the origin of the universe and its make-up, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise but in order to state the correct relationships of man with God and with the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God, and in order to teach this truth it expresses itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the writer.” - St. John Paul II.
I’ve seen so many people including myself at times refuse to believe in the Bible due to taking the first 3 chapters 100% literal. I’m asking you now to go back and re-read it in a brand new lens and try to receive the message it was originally meant to give.
Some resources to help better elaborate on these teachings would be The Word On Fire Institute: Adam, Eve, Us course, and the book, ‘In the Beginning’ A Catholic Understanding Of The Story Of Creation And The Fall by Pope Benedict XVI.
