A new Gallup Poll shows that almost 1 in 3 adult Americans believes the Bible is to be taken literally word for word. That's kind of scary to think that, in the 21st century, so many citizens of the most powerful nation in the world are Christian fundamentalists. No wonder the rest of the world fears us.

1 in 5 believes the Bible is nothing more than an ancient book of "fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man." A large majority believes the Bible is inspired by God but should not be taken literally.

My own personal view on the Bible falls somewhere between "inspired by God but not to be taken literally" and "nothing more than a collection of fables, legends, etc." Ironically, it was my Theological education in college that turned me from a true believer to a sceptic.

When I went off to college, I believed that the stories in the Bible like Noah and Egypt and the plagues, etc. actually happened. I also believed the Gospels were historical accounts of the life of Jesus. What I learned was something quite different.

I remember sitting in my New Testament class and being told, for the first time, that the Gospels were not actually written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as I had always believed. Rather, they were a compilation of different writings from different authors, put together almost 100 years after Christ. Well, that was a real eye-opener. If the Gospels are not eyewitness accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, how can we say they are literally true? They're just heresay and wouldn't be admissible in court.

And then there was the story of Gilgamesh, an ancient Babylonian account of a guy who was warned of an impending great flood, and who built a boat to save himself. Sound familiar? It's obvious that the Israelites merely incorporated Gilgamesh into their own cultural history while they were captive in Babylon.
Not to mention the fact that there is absolutely no scientific evidence of a worldwide flood killing everyone within the last 6,000 years.

If one interprets the Bible literally, there are hundreds of contradictions that one must account for. Where did Mrs. Cain come from? If Adam and Eve were literally the first humans, and Cain and Able were their offspring, how could Cain have found a wife from the land of Nod?

Neither the Apostles Creed, nor the Nicene Creed, two of the litmus tests of early Christianity, mention anything about literal belief in the scriptures. The early church fathers tended to interpret the scriptures as allegory, and looked for the deeper meanings hidden in the writings. We would do much better as a society to follow their example.