Folkiedave - "how am I to know which is which?"

You are to do what you do in every other situation in life and use your own intelligence, your own powers of understanding, and your own best judgement. Don't expect that everyone else will agree with whatever conclusions you arrive at. ;-)

"As far as I can gather, animals went into the Ark two by two and then God drowned the world - and everyone and thing in it, including children except for one family. What made them lucky and to be honest wasn't that a bit drastic?"

That is probably a symbolic tale, a very simplified version of something that happened where various people and creatures survived a great inundation...but it is exceedingly unlikely that it would have happened in precisely the manner described in the Bible with Noah, his family, the animals two by two, etc. In fact, I would submit that the part about all the animal species is completely unbelievable. Noah could not have managed that part. Are you aware that a great many non-Christian, non-Judaic cultures also have folk tales about a great flood in ancient times? The North American Indians, for example, have such tales. So do oriental peoples. They do not say anything about Noah and his family, they describe other survivors of the flood. The Judaic tale probably arose from a specific group of people in a certain geographical area who were explaining it as they best understood it and best remembered it...

"In the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah - Lot and his family were saved as uniquely righteous. A couple of angels were sent to warn Lot and the people of Sodom gathered around demanding the right to sodomize them - what else!! Genesis 19:5 Certainly Lot refuses which looks good for someone uniquely righteous; until you realise he offers his two virgin daughters as replacements!! Genesis 19:7-8."

Well, that tells you something about the relative status and importance of men vs. women in the culture of the time, doesn't it? ;-) A patriarch was very important, his daughters were not. This is shocking to a modern audience. It would not have been nearly as shocking to the audience for whom it was written, I would gather.

Those who are "saved" in time of great calamity (meaning that they survive it) usually go about constructing a story afterward which proves that they were saved because they were more righteous than those who perished. (and they probably believe it...)

On the other hand, it could be another symbolic tale, a parable, told in order to prove a point of some kind. There were many such tales in ancient times, and people took them quite seriously as a form of moral guidance.

"After their mother was turned into a pillar of salt the daughters get their father drunk and he makes them both pregnant"

That is indeed a hilarious example of Old Testament weirdness! I guess maybe this was a case of "the end (continuance of the familial line) justifies the means"??? ;-)

"I wonder if this is the book you would really choose to lead your life by??"

Yeah, it's strange, isn't it? But what people have always done is that they first of all interpret the Bible and filter it through the understanding of their own society, their own time and culture. Then they mainly focus on the parts they can relate to best and they give less attention to the parts they don't relate to so well. People are very adaptable, and they will find ways of adapting to a book like the Old Testament once they have made the initial decision to believe in it.

It's just like millions of people adapting to a political philosophy, regardless of what is done in the name OF that political philosophy. Consider the horrible things that have been done (at times) in the name of Communism, Naziism, or the British or American systems. Pogroms, death camps, invasion and plunder, destruction of Native people's entire way of life, dropping atomic bombs on cities, etc...

Yet millions of well-meaning people have subscribed to those systems and still do. They choose to focus on the good points of the system and not to take much notice of the bad ones.

It's the same with a religion.