That being said, while I can’t speak to what facts you may have personally ignored or rationalized away (we’ve not spoken specifically enough for me to have a list) I can answer you based on what I see in general from believers who are heavily invested in their religion. (Again, not you yourself, but examples from my experience.)

The easiest example is myself. Going back to the early days, when I was still driving my parent’s minivan out to your place filled with teens for bible study, I was learning and growing as a Christian. There were issues that would come up, like the concept of “trinity”, where I would hear and read many different opinions. I say “opinions” because to each person, it wasn’t opinion but a fact. Everyone was always convinced that their understanding was “right” and other people were at best misguided. Looking back years later, I can see that much of my “faith” was a house of cards. I built it up, taking the pieces that made sense, rationalizing things that didn’t fit, and putting together my new world view. I had no idea at the time that that’s what was happening – and would have denied it vehemently if you’d told me I was doing it. At the time, I was reading and learning, praying and growing, and doing my best to grow in wisdom with God’s guidance.

Eventually I was able to understand better that period of my life. And since then, I’ve seen others doing the same thing. It’s not just religion that sees this happen, but it’s one of the easiest examples. The phrase you used, “the way that God lays out” is similar to things my brother has used in argument with me, when he tells me that it’s not his view that matters, but God’s. That’s all fine and well to say, but when you (or my brother, or any other person) is telling me anything that they believe to be Truth, it is by necessity their own human understanding of it. Otherwise there would be no way for them to be conveying it to me. I have no problem with saying there is an objective Truth, but I see no way for any of us to ever grasp it. We are stuck behind our senses. We don’t perceive the world as it is, there are time delays and distortions in every thing we take in. Add to that the issue of comprehension, the understanding of ideas across vastly different frames of context, and it’s amazing we can agree on a restaurant to meet at for dinner.

If you want to start debating individual biblical contradictions, here’s a decent starting point: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html

A good book I read this last year that does a pretty good job of defining a large part of where my current issues with Christianity are is Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060738170)

And, all that aside, my main point with this post was regarding the false dichotomy of our current political game. I’m tired of the name calling and villainizing (sp?).