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[abaris]

Incorrect. A Catholic is free to interpret ot stories as either literal or fictolional.

Now they are. But as I said in one of our previous discussions. The priests of my childhood didn't see it that way. They were very much into literal interpretation of the OT and threatened us with all kinds of eternal punishments based on the stories. One of my first stepping stones to becoming an atheist, since it collided with two things in my upbringing. My father's constant reminder to always question authority and my parent's liberal and benevolent understanding of god and his message.

That was roughly ten years after the second Vaticanum, but the church being a very slow moving ship, the message hadn't reached the priests as of yet. It took the old generation dying out to come to more liberal views. But by saying you can take these stories the way you want to, is simply shifting the burden of theological responsibility. You can take them literally or not. That's why there are still priests who take them literally and teach the same malignant bullshit we were brought up to believe and to feel bad about.

Evangelicals, thankfully, are a very small portion of christianity. Even a smaller portion take the bible as the literal word of god. Most of them sfely contained in pockets of the USA. That guy can be as polite as they come. A literalist of any religious script is on the same lines as the Taliban. They follow an archaic code of conduct that rightfully has no place in this time and life.