“1. Since when is science the final arbiter of all truth? It never has been. Science is the observation and application of natural laws... it doesn’t deal with philosophical and metaphysical truth.”
Science isn’t the final arbiter of all truth. I’m not sure what that has to do with anything though. The Pope seems to want to make Genesis compatible with science, by explaining that Genesis isn’t a truthful account. So, if anyone is holding science out as a higher standard of truth, I’d say it was the Pope.
“2. The creation story in Genesis isn’t told as a science manual. It is a true story of God’s love and our beginnings told from the perspective of a Father to His children. When it was originally told, we were told in such a way that man could understand. Just as you simplify the complex for your young children, so God did for us. This doesn’t make it false. Rather, it is full of meaning and truth... just not from a scientific, literal reading.”
Yes, it does make it false, strictly speaking. When I tell a child that the Tooth Fairy will come and put money under their pillow for their teeth, I am lying to them. I may think that I am doing it out of love, or some other kindly motivation, but I am still not telling them the truth. So, the assertion that you, and the Pope are making is essentially calling God a teller of “tall tales”, to put it mildly.
God reveals Himself through His Word and through Nature. And He never contradicts Himself.
So if the Word and the Nature seem to contradict each other than either you have misunderstood Nature or you have misinterpreted the Word.
And this tension will continue until He returns.
You are the one saying it! The Pope simply said the creation account isn't science. You are the one that twisted his words to mean "fairy tale" and "untruth". Very clearly, you have raised science above religion and given it the veto over truth. By your own words: if it doesn't comport with science then it must be fairy tale.
The rest of us are just trying to tell you what you are espousing. The Pope is reaching toward the higher truths.
Yes, it does make it false, strictly speaking. When I tell a child that the Tooth Fairy will come and put money under their pillow for their teeth, I am lying to them.
We explain more to our children than just tooth fairies and Easter bunnies. Ever heard of the birds and the bees? When our child is young, we answer questions in terms they can understand. We aren't lying, they just aren't ready to understand the full processes of intercourse, ovulation, implantation and cell division. We put these things in other terms until they are mature enough to understand it fully.
What do you answer a toddler when they ask where babies come from? Are you a liar for not getting deeply into the science of it? Rather, most people would answer that babies come from the love of mommy and daddy (or some such). That is technically true, but woefully incomplete from a scientific viewpoint.