As a Christian, I think some of the Old Testament stories, especially the ones in Genesis, are just plain dumb and should not be taken seriously or literally, even by the most religious of readers. Somebody gave me a book called
The Purpose Driven Life, and one of the chapters talked about how Noah built an arc for 100 years, and he was 5,000 years old at the time.
Like
Ms. Chicken, I almost turned into an atheist. But my faith in God goes beyond the fictitious and outrageous tales in the Bible.