lets take a more specific bible story. the bible claims that god picked up a hand full of dirt and made man. after man was made he noticed man was lonely so he put man to sleep and took a rib out of a man and used that to make a woman. do you believe that is a factual description of how man was created?
A comet or nova, was seen by Chinese and Korean stargazers in about 5 BC. This object was observed for over seventy days with no movement recorded. Ancient writers described comets as "hanging over" specific cities, just as the Star of Bethlehem was said to have "stood over" the "place" where Jesus was.
So what do I believe... I believe the stories in the Bible are oral stories passed down, embellished the way humans do that, and I believe the better stories are metaphor. I believe atheism would very probably make human behavior worse, as hard as it is to imagine Mankind acting more badly. I believe there is something vastly, vastly greater to the universe and its origin than what we've imagined so far, that the random (within the matrix of the laws of physics, of course) vibration of hydrogen atoms over millennia could not possibly have produced the transcendent horror that is: <img src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTTOtB0Qj6Yy3AXRJhuhlzY3mTS_xpimOFgwJAGEwYOiBdg7YiQ"> the polyester leisure suit.
fair enough. then explain to me what is the value of teaching kids that these metaphor/myths are historical fact?
You would feel more comfortable with someone who genuinely believed it is good to revere as an invisible sky friend the main character in a set of stories who is a murderous genocidal tyrant who killed himself pretending to be his own son but didn't really so that he could play both good-god bad-god whilst all the time supposedly being a ghost. Rather than choosing to be castaway with someone not exhibiting that psychosis? How strange.
Lol. Now you mention it perhaps you are terrified . Purposely choosing someone to be marooned with only because they would actually profess to worshipping the concept of a cruel dictator over someone who does not, suggests you are at least afraid of something.