johnthn

Exactly. When those stories that make up the bible were written, people were basically iliterate (except very few scholars). For a long time, people lived in an oral culture, which means, that stories were told in a figurative, sometimes repetitive manner, so that people would memorize them. In the case of the bible, they are allegories, supposed to transport morals and beliefs and not to be taken literally. I'm sure Mr. Maher is intelligent enough to find other reasons to prove his atheist viewpoints, but imo, making fun of OT is a cheap way to do so. Of course, they don't make sense in our culture today, because those stories are thousands of years old and come from an oral culture.
Sure, a frightening number of people do take the OT literally and use this to cause harm. Nevertheless, I don't think Maher is doing himself a favor in trying to argue with those peole and using them to discredit religion as a whole.