I believe in Genesis very much. The stories are deep and meaningful whether you believe it is historical or not. I watched Forst Gump once, it was a great story and I gathered all the meaning of the story while knowing there never was a man named Forrest Gump from Greenbow, AL that did all those things. I think my point is if your faith is dependent on the every word being divine and carrying the authority of God, then like many Christians or former Christians you are going to hit some brick walls. I went through this the other night with a relative that found religion in his 60s about a year ago.

The crazy stuff in the OT like Lot's daugthers is easy to rationalize as we consider that those people with a different and more primitve understanding of God. I believe that some of it is figurative not literal. However, there is stuff in the NT that trips up people. Specifically Paul's condoning slavery (Ephesians), shunning, and his condemnation of homosexuality. I've seen many get religion only to cool off or fade out once they can not reconcile Paul's letters espically those that did not grow up in church and have no idea those passeges even exist which is a majority of the population these days. It leaves an honest person with two choices, pick and choose the parts you like or come up with another explanation.

By believing the OT might be as must folklore as history or that Paul's letters were a memo from the corporate office to knock it off does not devaule the message for me. I can see the point regardless. It allows to me to be honest with myself and still consider myself a Christian. I could be wrong, very wrong. But I think Jesus did say all you need is the faith of a mustard seed. So maybe this all I got.