This is a debate even among faithful Christians, from those who believe every word of the Bible as God-given fact (and therefore must believe that rabbits are ruminants and bats are birds) to those who believe in it more as spiritual and moral guidance written by errant human hands through God's inspiration.
No it isn't.
Convincing argument :)
The earlier part of Genesis was formulated at a time when the Jews were still a polytheistic tribe. This polytheism is quite evident throughout the early OT, as God tries to get rid of it.
When one starts picking and chosing which bits of the Bible are and are not literal, they've screwed up. God is not the god of confusion. He clear with His history and His Gospel.
I see since the Hewbrew refered to bat as birds, which is completely appropriate for the tiem it is written, Bible believing Christians now must also hold that bat are birds? Obviously they are not. God does not expect a person to "check his brain at the door" when reading His Word.
Convincing argument :) The earlier part of Genesis was formulated at a time when the Jews were still a polytheistic tribe. This polytheism is quite evident throughout the early OT, as God tries to get rid of it.
The statement wasn't meant as an argument, merely a statement of fact. The Bible is 100% Monothesistic, but I do not have the time, nor energy to "prove" everything to everyone. Look it up, only liberal, non-Bible believing scholars hold that this is true. If you want to join their camp, do so, but I hope you look into the subject and find the truth. Monotheism was carried through the generations by the decendants of Shem (Son of Noah), until we reach Abram, who as we all know is the father of the Jewish nation, and Abram was NO monotheist. Polytheism came about from the decendats of Ham (Son of Noah), specifically the worship of Cush, his son Nimrod, and Nimrod's wife around the time that the towel of Babel was built. All apostate religions since that day have remained largely unchanged, although the names of the "gods" changed from culture to culture. Look this up as well. It's an interesting subject.