"Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking non-sense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although 'they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.'" - De Genesi ad litteram, Book I, ch. 19
"With the scriptures it is a matter of treating about the faith. For that reason, as I have noted repeatedly, if anyone, not understanding the mode of divine eloquence, should find something about these matters in our books, or hear of the same from those books, of such a kind that it seems to be at variance with the perceptions of his own rational faculties, let him believe that these other things are in no way necessary to the admonitions or accounts or predictions of the scriptures. In short, it must be said that our authors knew the truth about the nature of the skies, but it was not the intention of the Spirit of God, who spoke through them, to teach men anything that would not be of use to them for their salvation." ibid., Book II, ch. 9
St. Augustine believed the most commonsense reading of the opening chapter of Genesis was as an allegory, with which he expounds as the literal, or that is, normative, plain reading of the text. Augustine maintained, following a passage in Sirach, that all things had been created simultaneously, and these in seminal form; seeds with potential and growth--a primitive way of describing the observed phenomenon of similarities among things, in particular living things. An observed phenomenon that today is understood and explained by the theory of biological evolution.
The good Doctor's point still stands, however. And that is we summon upon ourselves unnecessary mockery--and thereby bring mockery to God's word--when we pontificate upon the Scriptures concerning things which were not the biblical authors' intent and which anyone with a small amount of learning in a given field could easily dismiss as the uttering of fools. It therefore becomes prudent to not forsake common sense or understanding with what reason the authors of Scripture wrote and what the Holy Spirit, through them, has sought to teach us concerning the invisible and holy things of God for us and our salvation; otherwise the result is what happens on a regular basis when, say, a flat-earther insists the earth literally rests upon pillars.
-CryptoLutheran
I was being phaseeshus.
