You almost certainly live in America, and almost certainly in the South. "Everything in the bible literally happened the way it was written down" Is a completely unhinged heresy that has only ever existed in America in the last century or two. It's spreading to places where Evangelical fascists have a lot of influence, but it's still a new, utterly insane, idea.
That's not particularly true. Evangelical Protestant Christianity has a massive foothold in Sub Saharan Africa. In part thanks to colonialism and old school missionaries, and also thanks to modern missionaries and American support. It's why you see news about Kenya or Uganda trying to pass some new homophobic law. Or stories about churches in South Africa spraying attendants with bug spray and raising people from the dead. So many people here take the Bible almost completely literally, and have done so for a long time. Sometimes even completely detached from American Evangelical ideology in their literal interpretation of the Bible.
And also no one, including the most steadfast evangelicals, takes the Bible 100% literally. If they did, the religion would collapse by Genesis already. They have to believe that Satan somehow possessed or is represented by the snake to make the garden of Eden story work, as the Bible makes no mention of it. Also, unless they believe that it never rained on earth until the flood with Moses (some really crazy people actually do believe it never rained until then), they have to see the part about the rainbow afterwards as a metaphor.
And also no one, including the most steadfast evangelicals, takes the Bible 100% literally.
Oh yeah, it's totally incoherent, inconsistent cherry picking. The point is that they claim, and they believe, that everything in the bible is 100% literally true. And they don't have the self awareness to realize how hypocritical and dumb they're being, or they don't care.
I was raised in a church like that, believed the Bible was 100% the literal word of God. And was very Christian, even worked for the church. But by the time I was 14-15 years old, I figured out most of it was nonsense, and managed to push some of the pastors and youth pastors into awkward positions. Got one older guy to believe that dinosaurs and humans rosmed the earth together, and that it never rained before the flood of Moses, and that the earth was encased in a bubble of water. Another guy eventually gave up and gave me the "you can still be a Christian, believe in evolution, not be homophobic and Islamophobic, and think the Bible is metaphorical, even if we don't do that at this church" talk.
That's not particularly true. Evangelical Protestant Christianity has a massive foothold in Sub Saharan Africa. In part thanks to colonialism and old school missionaries, and also thanks to modern missionaries and American support. It's why you see news about Kenya or Uganda trying to pass some new homophobic law. Or stories about churches in South Africa spraying attendants with bug spray and raising people from the dead. So many people here take the Bible almost completely literally, and have done so for a long time. Sometimes even completely detached from American Evangelical ideology in their literal interpretation of the Bible.
And also no one, including the most steadfast evangelicals, takes the Bible 100% literally. If they did, the religion would collapse by Genesis already. They have to believe that Satan somehow possessed or is represented by the snake to make the garden of Eden story work, as the Bible makes no mention of it. Also, unless they believe that it never rained on earth until the flood with Moses (some really crazy people actually do believe it never rained until then), they have to see the part about the rainbow afterwards as a metaphor.
Oh yeah, it's totally incoherent, inconsistent cherry picking. The point is that they claim, and they believe, that everything in the bible is 100% literally true. And they don't have the self awareness to realize how hypocritical and dumb they're being, or they don't care.
I was raised in a church like that, believed the Bible was 100% the literal word of God. And was very Christian, even worked for the church. But by the time I was 14-15 years old, I figured out most of it was nonsense, and managed to push some of the pastors and youth pastors into awkward positions. Got one older guy to believe that dinosaurs and humans rosmed the earth together, and that it never rained before the flood of Moses, and that the earth was encased in a bubble of water. Another guy eventually gave up and gave me the "you can still be a Christian, believe in evolution, not be homophobic and Islamophobic, and think the Bible is metaphorical, even if we don't do that at this church" talk.