From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: RE: (urth) catholic acceptance of genesis
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 09:31:25 -0700

Marc: a few gentle semantic corrections ... You wrote:

> Also, from a Catholic perspective, I don't think the presence of the
> rainbow  is important to Urth of the New Sun's flood.  It is merely a
> symbol - there is  the idea that the first 11 chapters of Genesis or
> so are simply a story that helps justify the ways of God to man in a
> a primitive fashion that primitive man could understand; its literal
> truth is not as important as its functional truth.  

First, I would say that, for a Catholic, the entire Bible is literally
_true._ However, it is not necessary _factual_. This is functionally
equivalent to what I believe you are trying to say, but a more useful
way of making the distinction.

Second, never say "merely a symbol" wrt Catholicism; the whole 
Catholic practice is based on symbols that actually implement the 
reality they symbolize, a/k/a "sacraments," symbols of grace which
actually serve as vessels of the grace which they symbolize.

Symbols are not, to a Catholic, "mere."

Yours for semantic hygiene, 

--Blattid


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