Bible Not Literal Truth: Catholic Church

[philosophy]

I'm very very pleased to read that the Catholic Church has moved towards a less literal interpretation of the Bible. I've lost track of how I reached the article originally, but it's a UK Times article here. It's the more remarkable that it comes when the new pope was being characterized as one of the more conservative candidates.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure it will have an effect on the near-vitriolic debate going on south of the border over evolution vs. intelligent design in the classroom. That issue is a flash point of what I feel to be a larger problem of distrust towards scientists, which troubles me greatly. There is such thing as healthy skepticism, but I'm feeling like it's moved on to "blind distrust."

One thing that did surprise me is that they are also refuting the apocalypse of Revelations. I would agree with this, myself; whether you believe in it or not, apocalyptic prophecies are dangerous things that can easily be abused. But it did raise my eyebrows.