Among the many problems with taking the Bible literally is it reduces the most mysterious and complex of realities to simple - even simplistic - terms. Yes, scripture speaks of fire and damnation and eternal bliss, but the Bible is the product of human hands and hearts, and much of the imagery is allegorical, not meteorological.

New York: Random House. Affiliations
A contributing editor of The Washington Monthly Meacham is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University in 2005 and holds five other honorary doctorates.

He is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He is a former editor-in-chief of Newsweek a contributing editor to Time Magazine editor-at-large of WNET and a commentator on politics history and religious faith in America.