I've just been watching this thread, popcorn in hand, hoping Oaklandguy is anomalous, but I had to ask a question after this post - Oaklandguy, you say here that something was lost in translation. Doesn't that open the door to the possibility that other things have been lost in translation? I have never understood the literal interpretation of the Bible, if only because it HAS been passed down through now thousands of years, through who knows how many languages, translated for ages by people paid by those in power, with incentives to skew certain things their way.
I like to think I have an open mind, and I fully believe in everyone's right to their beliefs and opinions. However, and I'm trying to say this as kindly as possible, the fact that I think you have the right to believe something for which I see no basis in reality or logic does not mean I can not judge your intellectual strength or curiosity based on your belief. It's one thing to not "believe" in evolution when one has not been educated about it - to have studied evolution and seen the enormous, independently verified, near-universally corroborated piles of evidence for it and willfully refuse to admit that it's at least compelling says a lot about a person - not that they are not a "good" person, in a moral sense, but, IMO, not capable of being a real practitioner of science.
I've almost certainly said too much, so I'll end rant here. I'm not trying to flame or make an ad hominem attack, I'm just disturbed by, well - I'll leave it at that. I'm disturbed.