OK,

I think it got posted.

If all these super religious fundamentalists would take the time to learn about the historical context of the Bible they might back away from their rigid interpertations and actually arrive at a deeper appreciation of its content.

The historical culture of the Bible is a wonderful testament (no pun here) to a mind set lost in Western civilization. The art of story telling with incredible detailed memory is still alive in the Middle East albeit among older minds not corrupted by the pace of modernity.

Curiously, in my work within many cultures, that part of the world seems to stand out in this regard.

A digression here: I read somewhere, "With all the beautiful places on earth, why did God choose the Middle East for the setting of the Bible?"

One has to sit and listen to an Arab story teller recite from his/her incredible memory tales that last sometimes literally for hours.

A visit to a local Mosque might suffice to impress how anyone can memorize the whole Koran and recite it from memory. Every Mosque seems to have someone who has done this.

I hope thiese feeble words can shed some light on Jeff's concern for our Western lack of story telling and the accompanying inability to memorize details therein.