"Let's hear it for the teacher Jesus, killed as a rebel by the authorities for subversion, who preached the Sermon on the Mount that his "followers" today so studiously ignore."

Yes, indeed! Hurrah for the free thinker, Jesus, who taught a gospel of love, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, and nonviolence! Jesus was not a Christian. Christians are the people who came later, some time after Jesus was gone, and after his first group of surviving followers gave up trying to reform the traditional Jewish religion from within and decided to turn Jesus into an idol and start an entirely new religion in his name. They started a whole long train of events, many of which were not at all in the spirit of what Jesus taught. It's hardly fair to blame him for it. He wasn't there any longer to set his "followers" straight.

As for the Bible, it's a pastiche of writings by many different authors from many different historical time periods, and each book reflects the ideas of the writer and the time. The Old Testament is for the most part utterly unlike the New Testament in its approach to things. The message Jesus brought was very unlike the messages brought in most of the Old Testament, and this is probably one of the main reasons why he was persecuted and eventually killed by the religious authorities of his time.

It's fairly incredible that any human being would consider the Bible to be "without error" and literally true throughout....until you consider the effect that culture and upbringing has on people. People basically WILL tend to believe and accept whatever they've been taught to believe and accept by their parents, their schools, and their community. They do so because they see it as an intrinsic part of their own identity and they're used to it. Their acceptance is pretty much automatic from that point on. And they often feel threatened by others not automatically accepting what they accept.

Given that, it's not so surprising that some people take the Bible literally and think it is without error. They've simply been around other people who thought that way, and they take it for granted.

Once you take anything for granted, you entire logical mind and your powers of reason and observation and interpretation line up like soldiers to defend it. It makes sense to you because you've already decided that it should.

This is why, for example, I have 2 exceedingly intelligent young friends who are Jehovah's Witnesses....and they are NOT stupid people...nor are they poorly educated people...in fact, they are one of the brightest and most capable (and likable) couples I've ever known. They are exemplary people. One is a dental hygeinist, the other is a successful business advisor who helps companies improve their sales capabilities and other organizational skills.

There is no aspect of these two people that is not quite impressive (aside from their religious ideas, which might not impress you or me). I kid you not! But they believe literalist stuff about religion and the Bible that I could not possibly believe, because I came from a completely different upbringing than they did. Their beliefs surprise me a bit...but don't trouble me. It doesn't harm me in any way. It is no threat to anyone. It's just their own level of belief, that's all, and I can't see that it's doing them any harm either....they are handling their lives extremely well, and they are among the nicest and must trustworthy, honest, responsible people I've ever known.

So I make no judgement on them whatsoever over their religious beliefs, I simply accept the fact that they grew up with a completely different set of assumptions around them than I did. And that's why they believe different things than I do. Period.

We can argue the pros and cons forever, but there will always be people who believe stuff we don't believe. It doesn't mean they're stupid. It doesn't mean they're bad. It means they grew up under a different set of influences and were exposed to different things.