We use all sorts of resources, external and internal to gain knowledge and bring a higher understanding to specific subjects, literal vs symbolic in scripture being one of those subjects.
If you use the Bible alone plus your own imagination and listen only to those folk singing from the same hymn book as you to make sense of the Bible you will likely become a fundamentalist who can not differentiate between reality and the magical world of literal Christian belief where anything is possible, talking snakes, getting swallowed by fish, rising from death, etc. I'm sure you and I would not wish that on anybody who claims to be a lover of God and therefore truth and reality.
Everything is not always symbolic in scripture, but you can bet the house on any scriptural belief that contradicts science as being manmade imagination arising from another tragic literal rendition again.
So now you know, people are using intelligence and all resources available to try to get a clearer picture of what the Bible is saying and it has to stop. Snakes can talk sometimes and the earth can be flooded above the highest mountain and bounce back like nothing happened in a few months, two of every animal can be gathered on to a boat and go back to their own countries after the flood and breed back all the those lost animals with no inbreeding problems at all, and 8 Jews can interbreed and make Chinese babies and Zulu babies and Aboriginal babies and all the different types of babies needed to fill the world with different races and cultures in about 6 months I reckon, and fish swallow people all the time and the dead, well we've all seen them zombie movies, as for cripples, even old Benny Hinn can throw them crutches away and get people walking again while the cameras are on for a few thousand dollars.
