Why are they so secretive? One possibility is that they merely claim to know God's will, but actually don't know any better than the rest of us.
The suggestion that Jesus was a heterosexual man and married and had sex and had kids--as was usual for men in his time--is blasphemous is quite curious to me. It is surely plausible. Not proven, but plausible.
The idea that a book written 2000 years ago, +/-500 years, is not allegorical, not fiction is curious. I mean, talking snakes coming up and speaking in Aramaic to Eve is quite a story. We don't even know whether Eve understood Aramaic, Hebrew, Babylonian or Egyptian. I guess that talking snakes are quite clever and don't use Babelfish.
But then a few generations later, we are told, the "Intelligent Designer" got really annoyed. Noah's Flood story. Nobody really believes this, and it contradicts everything we know in historical and present-day science. It also contradicts everything in morality--the idea that innocent fetuses, newborns, toddlers would be drowned is not an idea that appeals to serious Christians.
Ancient fictions and recent fictions can be put on the same level.
Odd, too how you start in on Jesus and end up in Eden.
If you chose to believe that humans are the random descendants of linking molecules on a hostile mudball, that is your choice. As you said, recent fictions...
I find it less improbable that the Son of God came to Earth as a child, grew up and died for the sins of humanity, was ressurected, and ascended into Heaven to take his rightful place.
Your mileage may vary.
But as a scientist, I am sure you can resolve all this. Just go find the body.
Noah's Flood story. Nobody really believes this, and it contradicts everything we know in historical and present-day science. It also contradicts everything in morality--the idea that innocent fetuses, newborns, toddlers would be drowned is not an idea that appeals to serious Christians.
As for the flood, there are surviving accounts of a great flood in many cultures, not just in the Bible. There is also evidence of catastrophic flooding in numerous places in the world, from the scablands of Washington state to the Mediterranean Sea.
As for what Christians find palatable in the Old Testament, read it, there is much modern people might find unseemly, like putting entire cities, man, woman, child, even livestock, to the sword. Not for the squeamish.
The New Testament, though, outlines a different era in relations with God, for those who are familliar with it.
Before dissing the Bible, read it. It will take longer than the DaVinci Code, but you seem to be a literate person and can probably handle it.
Keep in mind that the cities which were named there and lost to time have, for the most part, been found (Sodom and Gommorrah are exceptions) by archaeologists, and thus the accounts are substantiated to that extent.
Personally, I'd like to find the crossing point in the Red Sea--there should be some interesting artifacts there--considering an army was wiped out when the water came in.