In 1861 John William Colenso, Anglican Bishop of Natal, was translating Genesis into Zulu, and began to doubt the literal truth of the words he was translating. On further study he began to doubt the historical truth of all the first five books of the Old Testament. Much was newer than originally thought, the law of Moses seemed to be an invention of the Jews during their Babylonian captivity, the book of Deuteronomy was a fake, and the books of Chronicles were written to aggrandize the priests and Levites.
This brave priest published his doubts and findings and brought the wrath of the establishment down on his head. The Natal Anglicans split, and are still split into two factions after all this time.
Epicureans should admire the honest Christians who are brave enough to treat the bible for what it is – an attempt to interpret the world around them by primitive and illiterate tribes. Actually, Genesis is rather a good story, but it isn’t original. Taken for what it is, an interpretation, the Pentateuch is fine. What is troublesome to Epicureans and other rational people is that in 2007 millions of people still believe every single word of the Old Testament.
Adapted from pp 324-325 of Jan Morris’s Heaven’s Command
There are still religious people capable to distinguishing a metaphor from the immutable and literal word of god. Mostly, they are hounded out of their churches if they have any formal role in them, but they do exist. Problem is, they do not exist in sufficient numbers.