Argue with someone about The Bible: FAIL

Yesterday I was at the gym. While at the gym I typically try to squeeze in some reading. On this occasion I decided to catch up on some Northrope Frye while I enjoyed the warmth of the sauna, you could say I was Fryeing in the sauna (I love bad puns). While I read a couple gentlemen entered the sauna and took up respective seats on the tiered benches. Then at random one guy asks me what I am reading. I reply, "Northrope Frye's Words with Power." He then asks me if it is a religious book and I ended up explaining that I was in a class that focused on reading The Bible. This prompted him to ask how far in The Bible I have read. I tell him, "Leviticus 10." He then scoffs and says, "You are in the thick of it my friend, nothing as thick as the pentatuc." When he says this I realize this is the guy. I am going to argue the meaning and writing of The Bible in a sauna with this guy. When I asked him about his biblical experience he went on to give me a rundown of his history growing up in kentucky with baptists, and how he had gone to bible school etcetera. Honestly at this point I was thinking,"Fuck. Picked the wrong guy to argue The Bible with." This guy knew his shit. For instance when I would reference a story he could tell me the book and the chapter. That is how good he was. I felt like I had picked a fight with the skinnest nerdiest white kid I could find only to find out he was a quadruple black belt in, "FucYu up." To my shagrin he was knowledgable but did not force his opinions on me. For instance we talked about Exodus and Leviticus and how the rules in there were practical for the survival of the people in there quest in the desert. I agreed on some aspects of his arguement and argued my points of thematic value of story and the integration of societal laws as a method of government and control. All the while the third guy sat there in silence shaking his head periodically, and nodding even less. Come to find out that the guy I had been talking to left the church in college to become and atheist and is now going back to a presbetirian chuch as an adult living here in Bozeman. So fourty five minutes later we end up having exit the suana for risk of heat stroke. He recommened a book called The Message a contemporary translation of The Bible. So all in all I was pleased with the outcome; no punches were thrown, no yelling ensued, actually the whole thing ended with a hand shake.