i get what your saying with the bible allowing only to be shown as truth, but if you deal with anything in absolutes youre doomed to make mistakes, and in the bibles case, you can inadvertently turn people away. thats a bit selective if you can pick n choose when youll be willing to accept something as figurative. and i appreciate your apology, but no one has tried to ruin christianity for me, my views are a result of my doing.

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USGrant, you seem really concerned that someone would suggest that the Bible might not be the literal word of God.

But tell me. Would your faith in God be destroyed if it was proven that certain parts of it (like, say, the Genesis story) had to be metaphorical?

If so, what does that say about the strength of your faith?

If not, what are you worried about?

Further, consider these possibilities:

What if it wasn't metaphorical, but general? As in "creating the birds of the air and the fish of the sea" didn't mean creating them in their modern forms, but in the form of their evolutionary precursors?

What if it wasn't metaphorical, but a "day" back then wasn't the same as a day now (especially because day and night weren't created until midway through the process)? Could not a day back then have lasted the equivalent of a billion years today?

If your answer to any of that is "no", does that not arbitrarily limit the God you claim is omnipotent?

There are plenty of literal readings of the Bible that yield results compatible with science and evolution. You've just chosen the narrowest such interpretation. Which makes no particular sense as a matter of either logic or faith.

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Man up.

Can you find me a quote?

Actually, this is not entirely correct, unless of course you are speaking strictly of the New Testament. Then of course, you would be very close to what is thought to be the writings of most of the books of the New Testament.

Sadly enough, this is also correct. There are thousands of people all over the world, who claim to be "Christian", but who are nothing more than religeous people practicing their own brand of religeon. Thank you for this honest and challenging post.

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"I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution." March 4, 1869, Grant's First Inaugural Address