a brief but excellent comment from a reader, which I am reposting.. here.
May 6, 2011
Regarding the Bible, “It’s a mixed bag of poetry, law, stories and historically inspired writing.
The bits that aren’t ‘true’ in the historical sense, like Adam and Eve, were written as stories to express ideas about God and to express how those cultures related to him.
The Bible is a record of humanity’s developing understanding of God.”
In these few words, the comment’s author, Cerlaire, provided an excellent perspective on the Bible. Well done.
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Wandering Spirit 
Thank the Anglican church. 😉 that’s where I got it from.
The Anglican Church has a good perspective on this.
Yes this is good. I would just like to inject that as with all things on this planet this book was written as a co-creation with human beings, coming through their filters and influenced by politics at the time. Read it and feel it. You will know what resonates. If you get that funny queezy feeling….ah oh….it does not resonate for you and therefore not your truth. Much love.
Very good points! I don’t know what is with us Americans.. why we have such an intense fundamentalist streak. Taking the Bible so literally.
There is a saying in America, in regards to the Bible: “God says it, I believe it, that settles it.”
Maybe most people are incapable of critical thinking?
This anti-intellectual frame of mind is very prevalent, even among college-educated Christians.
Most Christians don’t even have any clue about who actually wrote the books, who put the books of the Bible together, how it was put together, and why some books were canonized and others were not. I, as of now, know next to nothing about this.
I was raised in conservative Protestant churches of various denominations. I look back on my teenage and young adult years, and am flabbergasted that neither I, nor anyone else even mentioned church history, or expressed any curiosity in where the Bible came from. We did not think about this at all, and this still shocks me.
Now, I want to know, and will be doing some research.
Finding out where the Bible came from and how it was put together will likely affect the faith of any Christian. Maybe that is why Christians leave this subject alone, and adopt the fundamentalist attitude. It is much simpler to be this way.