It seems that the vast majority of christians can believe that the bible is a holy book containing the revealed word of god and at the same time accept that at least some of the stories in the bible, the garden of eden, the flood, etc, are allegorical tales, told not to relate actual historical events, but to convey a moral, or message. Literalists, however, insist that every word is literally true, and if the bible says something happened, it happened just exactly that way.
I assume that most literalists believe in the truth of every word because of their faith in the inerrancy of god, and not the other way around. In other words, they first came to accept that god was divine and infallible and, from that, concluded that every word he says must be true. They did not conduct an in-depth investigation into everything in the bible, discover that all of it was true, then come to believe that god was infallible.
I further assume that, if some discovery were to come to light that proved, beyond any shadow of a doubt, and without possibility of error, that some part of the bible were incorrect, that would not cause most literalists to abandon their faith in god.
I'd like someone to explain to me why it is so necessary to their faith that every word of the bible be literally correct. Please don't try to convince me, I'm an avowed heathen and quite happily so. But I must admit to confusion about why literalists are literalists. If someone could explain that to me, I'd appreciate it.
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