Nick, I want to go back a couple of posts of yours and discuss some things you said.
you wrote: What I don't trust is the manner in which people interpret God's word.
I would ask, what makes you think it needs to be interpreted? For instance, the days in Genesis 1. Can you think of any better way to describe the idea of a 24 hour day when the concept of 'hours' was not invented by man until much later? In other words, it takes interpretation to get AWAY from the idea of a 24 hour day, but a straightforward reading of the text tells you that it was six normal days and nights.
In other words, I find interpretation being used by those who want to get away from the clear meaning of the text. It is us lunatic fundamentalists who have learned to just accept it for what it is saying, no interpretation necessary.
Metaphors, poetic language, symbols, and parables are clearly listed as such in the Bible by either grammatical construction, a note from the writer, or both. In cases where these elements are not sure, the Bible itself will explain if you take the time to study it.
You then wrote: And a whole lot about Genesis is opinion. That's true, but Genesis itself is not opinion. It is fact. In fact, it is written like eyewitness history, with detail and dialogue included which is only found in eyewitness accounts.
You stated, ...but I'm going to put my trust in God, not the earthly reasonings of philosophers, creationists or atheists. Well, you evidently left scientists out for a reason? In the meantime, there are literally hundreds of qualified, credentialed scientiests who are creationists! I resent the implication given in your quote that a scientist cannot be a creationist!
You then wrote: God wrote the Bible the way he did for his reasons. He could easily have made it plain and simple by making it completely harmonious with science, but that wouldn't have done for 2000 yrs ago. Whoa baby! Science is man's feeble attempts to find out all manner of things on his own with what data he can gather and what logic he can muster! Science changes continually. Scientific 'truth' flip flops continually! You want the Bible to agree with that? I'm willing to take the Bible as it is, knowing that every time some kind of resolution has been found when science and Bible disagree, it has been the Bible that has been right, not science! In the meantime, Genesis was written quite a bit before 2000 years ago. You might also consider that we have evidence from ancient Egypt of brain surgery, among other things, not to mention the construction of the pyramids and all manner of sophisticated achievements in the earliest of civilizations. There is nothing earlier man would not have understood at least as well as we do about Genesis!
Let science work within the framework of truth the Bible sets forth. A lot more would be accomplished a lot more quickly for a lot less money!
You, incredibly, also wrote the following: I became a Christian without taking the Bible all that seriously. It's wonderful how incredibly important it becomes over time, but it's a secondary issue. God himself is the most important thing for me. I would submit that without the Bible you have no standard of right and wrong, no standard of what is true and what is false. It is not secondary in any sense, for it is God's communication to us about Himself -- and without it we can easily be deceived by men's arguments.
Finally, you wrote: So, at what point do I start worrying about how to interpret the Bible? When it gets to stuff that directly affects my life. How to act, what to do, what Jesus did for me and what I need to give in return. There's few arguments over these, because they're what really matter.
I don't mean to be rude, but that is incredibly self-centered. We are to love God and love our neighbor. We are to be ready to give answers for the hope that we have, and to make disciples of new believers. Yes, we are to run the race ourselves, but that is how we are to run it. And it requires knowing Scripture entirely. It requires caring about what matters to others as well as to oneself. It requires KNOWING that any man can be a liar but that God is true.
Genesis is the foundation for every major doctrine in the Bible. Take away the veracity of Genesis 1-11 and you might as well call the Resurrection a metaphor, too.
Yeah, I feel a little passionately about believing the Bible as it is written. God knows how to communicate clearly.
And He did.