>Many of those who insist on Biblical literalism have already read this stuff.
I would argue that many likely haven't, or at least not all of it. There are plenty of Christians who construct a coherent narrative of what the Bible "says" in their heads based on cherry-picking and second-hand interpretation, believing it was inspired, word for word, jot and tittle, Old and New Testaments (in whatever form their church currently accepts[0]) by God Himself. They're told that Jesus was prophesied about in Daniel, and that certain monsters in Revelation represent Apache helecopters, and that everything makes perfect sense because the dots are connected for them.
But if one wants to believe that the world was created in seven literal days, one either has to fudge the definition of "days" (which many do) to account for the actual evidence, and come up with some reason for there being two completely different creation accounts in the Bible, or come to terms with the fact that the Bible is a work of fiction written by fallible human beings to understand their world in ways we understand far better now.
When I was in Sunday School aeons ago, I certainly had more questions about the Bible than answers, and it eventually became clear that the people teaching me had no greater or more profound insight into the nature of reality than I had. There are bound to be others who will read the Bible and start to have doubts that what's described there represents absolute truth. When you read it yourself, it's incoherent and irrational.
But you're right, there are some people you just can't reach.
[0] let's just ignore the numerous Biblical canons in existence, or that awkward period when all non-Latin translations were considered heresy, or that other awkward period when there was no singular canon, only numerous oral traditions and Gospels, many of which were decided after the fact to have not been the Word of God after all...
I would argue that many likely haven't, or at least not all of it. There are plenty of Christians who construct a coherent narrative of what the Bible "says" in their heads based on cherry-picking and second-hand interpretation, believing it was inspired, word for word, jot and tittle, Old and New Testaments (in whatever form their church currently accepts[0]) by God Himself. They're told that Jesus was prophesied about in Daniel, and that certain monsters in Revelation represent Apache helecopters, and that everything makes perfect sense because the dots are connected for them.
But if one wants to believe that the world was created in seven literal days, one either has to fudge the definition of "days" (which many do) to account for the actual evidence, and come up with some reason for there being two completely different creation accounts in the Bible, or come to terms with the fact that the Bible is a work of fiction written by fallible human beings to understand their world in ways we understand far better now.
When I was in Sunday School aeons ago, I certainly had more questions about the Bible than answers, and it eventually became clear that the people teaching me had no greater or more profound insight into the nature of reality than I had. There are bound to be others who will read the Bible and start to have doubts that what's described there represents absolute truth. When you read it yourself, it's incoherent and irrational.
But you're right, there are some people you just can't reach.
[0] let's just ignore the numerous Biblical canons in existence, or that awkward period when all non-Latin translations were considered heresy, or that other awkward period when there was no singular canon, only numerous oral traditions and Gospels, many of which were decided after the fact to have not been the Word of God after all...