I don't mean to come across as an idiot, and I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I don't understand your last two sentences. And I mean I don't understand the words' meanings, not that I disagree with what they're saying.

Did you mean ``... he makes statements against it...''? If so, people need to realize that these people, even though they lived many, many years ago, have the same foibles we do today. I'm sure many of us do things that we think are wrong, but we can't help ourselves, whether it be overeating or doing heroin or having gay sex (not that I think there's anything wrong with that, but Paul did).

And I don't know which ``cases'' you're referring to, and generally don't understand the rest because of that, I think. I'm so at a loss that I can't quite figure out how to ask what you're saying, other than to just ask you to rephrase it. Sorry. I'm sure I'm just being a moron here.

As far as believing the scripture, I view most of the old testament as history by way of metaphor and allegory. But most of the non-Gospel New Testament I believe, as it's mostly personal correspondence and almost diary-entry-type stuff, but it's obviously frought with personal bias, as it's mostly Paul telling other people what they should be doing.