Agreed, Don. There's nothing unique about my skepticism regarding Bible stories nor does it necessarily show any great insight.

But I was still the only kid in that Sunday school class who openly objected to the miraculous tales we were being told and who refused to accept them even though the teacher said they were true. The teacher was quite taken aback by my skeptical attitude, and certainly somewhat annoyed about it. Remember...this was at a very young age. I think it was before I was even in First Grade if I remember correctly. Most kids that age don't even worry about whether or not to question or reject such stories when they hear them from a teacher, but I got started on stuff like evolution and natural history books very early, so I had a different viewpoint.

Of course there are a great many Christians who are not literalists or fundamentalists and who realize that much of the Bible is allegories, metaphors, mythology, and folk tales! I am not in any way implying that all Christians are fundamentalist morons or something, and I am not denigrating the great value in Jesus' actual teachings. Anything but.   But these were kindergarten age kids I'm talking about, not adults, and they tended to accept what they were told. I was unusually skeptical for my age group, and it was probably because, like you, I had done a lot of reading. Science was also a hobby of mine from the time I was old enough to read, and I had learned to read at home before I ever went to school. I had been reading some books that showed (in pictorial form and text) the scientific viewpoint of the origins of life on this planet.

I'm well aware that we humans are ruining the oceans and fouling our planetary nest, Don. We have no argument there at all, you and I.