I think a better question is "how can a person be a Christian and not take the Bible literally?"
If you believe that God exists, and your evidence for that is the Bible, how can you accept that part as being true, but not accept other parts. Either the bible is correct, and God does exist, or it is false and the God described in the Bible does not exist.
Well, to put it simply; the Bible was written by man. And man is nowhere near perfect. How can God (a perfect being) and his teachings truly be understood/interpreted by such simple creatures?
If God is perfect, why isn't the work he inspires also perfect? Clearly if he inspires imperfect work, he is not perfect...
That is a great question. You might want to ask a very religious person it. I am not religious, but I did grow up as a Catholic, so I'll try my best to answer you.
God inspires Man. Man is nowhere near perfect. No matter how much inspiration God gives to Man, it isn't enough, because Man still has his faults, and plenty of them. Man will never be perfect, nor can he. It is impossible for Man to accomplish perfection... it is even impossible for Man to even conjure up the idea of a perfect world. Try yourself... it would never happen because of the faults of Man.
God also gave Man the ability to choose. With the simple mind Man has, is it no wonder God's perfect inspiration has yet to be accomplished? The choice from Man to choose power and wealth over compassion and love only shows how imperfect we are. The imperfection of Man is also magnified by temptation from the Devil. (Remember, this is what I've learned, not what I believe)
I can try to answer other question about my post if you need me to.