Open Letter to all Christians, vol. 2

This is another in a series of emails I've been exchanging with two of my favorite creationists, my dad & brother.  This one was more of a deflation of what might have been some unnecessary tension that occasionally builds up between my dad & I.   
Dad:
I can see that we're on opposite ends of the culture war that's waging out there.  I can't say that in the foreseeable future that I'll become a believer.  To me, the ideas in the Bible, taken literally, are quite frankly, absurd.  However, these ideas taken as a compilation of literature placed in their historical and cultural context work much better for me.  I'd like to explain my reasoning, but I'll probably just end up blaspheming the faith that you've plainly worked very hard to construct for yourself. 
The resolution to our dialogue is far in the future, but I think by continually communicating original ideas, we'll at least better understand how we arrived at our current, opposing conclusions.  I think this is more important than parroting contrary sound bytes back and forth.  I'm just as guilty as you are on this.  So from now on, let's focus more on what we think, rather than what we expect others for us to think.
Most of my free time is dedicated to science.  It's a passion of mine that extends far beyond the blogs and magazines that I read.  With this comes with the ideologies and value judgments of scientists, which I'll admit, aren't always god-friendly.  A recent poll This is ok to me, though.  I no longer feel that these people are deeply offending me like I used to.  They're just people with opinions, just like you & I.  I think
Eventually, I'd like to become a science teacher, on some level.  This affinity for science helps me to understand the world around me, and frees my mind to think about whatever I want to learn about.  In my opinion, a reading of biblical text tells me nothing about the beauty of current astronomy, why common homeopathic remedies are a waste of money, the benefits of understanding faults in logical thinking, how & why creationism Intelligent Design, etc are intellectually dishonest.  I get all of this from critically evaluating claims that I encounter, including those levied by Christians, or all religious folks, for that matter.  I understand if reading the Bible gives one fulfillment or inspiration.  Howeverer, I don't get it.  The inspiration offered by the text of the Bible, whether it was divinely inspired or not, is limited to the knowledge of men 2000 years ago, and therefore stagnates in the light of fundamental advances in human understanding.
OK, I'll stop.  I'm just following the maxim: "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."  This should come with the caveat that extraordinary amounts of time & energy will be spent debating as well.
So with that, I'd like to suspend my side of the arguments for the time being.  I have to admit: it's siphoning a good deal of the time and energy that I need to devote to building a healthy marriage and to prepare for the arrival of the Lima Bean.  However, feel free to comment.  It's not in my interest to permanently silence my biggest ideological opponent.  A question comes to mind: what idealogical or religious differences do you have with Pops?
Finally, as a necessary concession to make sense of my biblical upbringing, and to level myself with the great cultural tradition set forth by the Bible, I'm going to start reading God: A Biography.  It's been recommended, and should allow me, the biblical layperson, to better understand this ancient text.

Luna (June?) Brewington @ 20 weeks

I don't remember if I've told you about the term "Lima Bean."  If not, it's the provisional name we've been using for her until we pick a real one.  Since the baby looked like a lima bean at 9 weeks in the first ultrasound, we've called her that.  It's likely to remain a nickname for a good part of her childhood.  I've attached the most recent ultrasound photo that was taken last Friday.  We had a bit of a scare concerning a blood test that showed elevated AFP (Alpha Fetal Protein) levels, so we had to consult an OB specialist uptown.  This usually indicates spina bifida and/or certain genetic defects, but it turned out to be a statistical anomaly.  We were just slightly above the cutoff for the average pregnancy, but the specialist told us that it's probably just an idiosyncratic artifact of our particular pregnancy, so nothing to worry about.
I know we talked last week about names, but I couldn't recall the good ones, mostly because I was in the middle of a beer tasting.  So now, I give you, in a sober state, our top considerations: Andromeda, Luna, Callista, Lucia.  All of them are astronomically object-based Latin sounding names.  We're leaning toward Luna June Brewington.  June only because it's a big month for Elena & I.  I'll spare you the details.
Hope to hear from you soon.
-Derek

PS - I meant to ask you this before: do I have your permission to publish these email exchanges on my blog? I think some of the stuff we're covering is fascinating, and I'm inclined to include snippets of our convos.