You are all making the same point.... Taking it literally is asinine. Does it really matter if it was meant to be taken that way, or if there is a metaphorical value? Bottom line is that many people do take the bible literally, or else pick and chose parts to take literally with no justifiable distinction, and expect the rest of us to respect it. They go so far as to introduce laws based on this ideology, offer no explanation of how it translates into morality, and as ZS rightly points out, it is despicable.
If people were making public policies based on literal interpretations of Dr Seuss books, it wouldn't really matter if there was a proverbial foundation.