Seriously, if your belief system is based on something above and beyond, how can you just "choose" to believe one thing and not another? Is it whatever is convenient to your lifestyle? Sounds pretty broken to me.
Because these "things" are up to interpretation, and often from different sources. Like people have said, for instance, Jesus never says anything about homosexuality.
It's pretty simple to understand how this happens and is not at all "ludicrous."
There is definitely room for interpretation. Diehard Christians argue about interp issues all the time without being any less diehard for it.
But textual interpretation only goes so far before it becomes distortion. If you believe that 90% of the Bible is allegory/fable, I think it's intellectually dishonest to continue to call that Christianity. Same thing if you want to cut out the supernatural elements and just have a philosophy about how to live one's life. You can call it something else! That's okay!
Like maybe you think Jesus was a good dude with a lot of insights into societal reform, and you'd like to live by the principles he espoused during his life, but you don't believe in any of that "divinity" or "salvation" stuff. That's not even religious any more (since religion has to do with a higher power), let alone Christian, but it probably means you're kind/compassionate to the poor and downtrodden, which is a good thing.
Well, right. I was merely replying to his assertion that it's literally all or nothing. Even if it IS all or nothing, interpretation is still going to cause differences. ---