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Not all pastors are literalists.

Mostly just those from the subset of Christianity called "Fundamentalism" [0], which was founded around a hundred years ago as a reaction (IMO, an overreaction) to "Liberal Christianity" [1]. It's worth reading up on the history of those movements to get a clear understanding of where the modern move toward strong literalism originated.

You may also find it worthwhile to read Origen's De Principiis, particularly book IV sections 16-22 [2], and Augustine's On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis, particularly chapter 19 [3]. I've found a number of very early Christian scholars tend to treat certain sections of the Bible (particularly the first sections of Genesis) as not being intended to be understood literally.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_fundamentalism

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Christianity

[2] http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.v.v.ii.html

[3] http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/alaffey/other_files/Aug...




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