"Not to mention the fact that no part of the biblical texts invites dismissal on the face of it."
A few things that invite immediate dismissal:
1. All the universe and everything in it created in 6 days.
2. God stops time to let one army kill the other.
3. Somebody rides a fiery chariot to heaven.
4. God turns Lot's wife into a salt shaker for looking back, but has no problem with Lot nailing his daughters after offering them up to S&G, and using the excuse that he was too drunk to know what what happening.
5. The global flood.
6. Putting two of every animal on earth into a homemade boat.
7. Anything in the book of Revelations.
Ok, more than a few, but you get the idea.
Nah. Most of those are minor physical anomalies. Nothing superstitious, mystical, unreasonable, or unscientific about them. Or maybe your car thinks it's a mystical experience when you intervene to change the oil?
He's not talking about the Bible, he's talking about Biblical texts.
Those are two totally different things.
(/sarcasm)