Why do people get wrapped up in it? Easy, when it's well written, its as good as anything else, and a few of those authors (plural) who wrote some of the books (again plural) are among the best writers ever. Through out all time. Just take Genesis - such mindblowing perfect writing is hard to find really:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Throughout all science and folk/mythology and various religions past and present, how many millions of words have been written down trying to explain "Well, how did we get here?" And there, in one paragraph, is the entire whole of creation laid out. Who cares if its true? I don't think it was meant to be true, it was meant to explain, and it does that.
And when Jesus it talking - really Jesus talking, and not some other commentator or writer - the dude could give out the Big Slap Down, for sure. In the original "Just take a chill pill, dude" lecture of all time, Jesus says:
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
The only think that lacks is one of the apostles saying "Oh SNAP!" at the end of it.
And he could read people pretty damn well too. And if not 'god' in the literal sense, he sure could read the future pretty good.
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
The rest of it, Job, the entire story of Exodus, The Beatitudes, its all pretty well written stuff that rings true to other humans.
