"I do believe the bible is Gods word to us. it was given in ancient times and in places needs interpreting, but not to the point of being unintelligible to the average person of any period."

So you religious fundamentalists are not absolutely certain about what the Bible means then, pete? But I thought that the question of its meaning was "already settled"? I also think that your little diversion into the Bible's recounting of "immoral" events is an example of your muddled thinking. The Bible is either an accurate historical record or its not - whether the events it recounts are immoral or not is, surely, irrelevant(?)

I'm also not sure that the Michael "cricton" quote is relevant here either. The scientific concensus concerns such 'broad-brush' aspects of nature as the age of the Universe and its various components and the age of the Earth and the various stages of its history etc., etc. The details are subject to constant revision - but that's how science works - all scientists live with uncertainty all of the time. The broad-brush concensus is based on millions of sophisticated and painstaking observations, made by thousands of very clever and talented people, over a long period of time; it's not based on a bunch of religious fanatics sat in armchairs proclaiming that eveything that they read in an old book represents the absolute truth ... subject to "interpretation" of course!