Natalie on the troubles of biblical inerrancy, quoting from Christian Smith’s book “The Bible Made Impossible”:
Genesis 1-2 is an excellent example. What was the intended effect of the written words of these chapters? Was it to convey to the reader that the Yahweh God created a good world with his power? Or was it to communicate a literal scientific account about the precise method and time period of the creation of the world? Was it to banish rival pagan narratives of the earth’s origins? Or, anachronistically, was it to motivate followers of the Yahweh God to mobilize against teaching evolution in schools?
To impose our categories of literalism and factual accuracy onto a rich, ancient text disrespects the intended effect of Scripture’s written words. Inerrancy forces the Bible to look like a collection of “error-free propositions with which to construct indubitably true systematic theologies[.]” But the living God of the Bible “actively promises, confronts, beckons, comforts, invites, commands, explains, encourages,” and more.
Emphasis in original.