The only reasons why religion exists is, first, to help ancient ignorant people to live good productive lives, and second, to help those same simple people explain things they had no way at the time of understanding. The purpose of the bible was to compile a collection of short stories and anecdotes that those simple, ignorant people could have read to and interpreted for them and then contemplate how those stories related to their personal issues, then apply the interpretation of those bits to enrich their little lives and the lives of those around them. Another thing the bible did was create a sense of community. Remember, back when this tome was relevant the vast majority of people couldn't read so the process of gathering often and sharing the stories together was literally the only thing these people had to discuss with each other besides goat pellets and rocks. I think the many creators of the bible would be shocked and baffled that in this day and age, with all we know now, that so many otherwise normal people could be so insecure as to make up thier own "science" to deliberately cripple the thinking capacity and ultimately the potential success of their own children rather than adapt to the wondrous knowledge of our new world. To Interpret those ancient, *twisted words literally is to destroy the true intended purpose of the books creators. [i](*Through centuries of translation, and personal interpretation by those translators)[/i]