Addition to Previous Post: The Perils of taking the Bible literally

Though The Bible is full of genuine moral insight, moving stories, powerful descriptions of the human condition, and a moving spirituality, we know it also contains human folly and foible. Parts of The Bible condone slavery, genocide, sexism, you name it, like any text of the ancient world. As it is extremely relevant to my previous post, I thought I'd expand on this insight a little here by providing an informative video on the topic.

This video is of a talk by an author who tried to live an entire year taking all The Bible completely literally. The obvious absurdities are brought out with great humor. But he also has positive things to say about The Bible:



The basic point is simple: Taking The Bible literally is absurd. God did not write the Good Book and only a willing blindness prevents anyone from seeing that. However, The Bible can be seen quite productively as the record of spiritual insights and religious experiences of the ancient men and women who wrote it and of whom its tales tell. This latter reading is, I would argue, every bit as religious and profound as the first - indeed, I think it is far more so.

I highly recommend the actual book. The New York Times book review of it can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/books/review/Rosin-t.html?pagewanted=print