There's a progression of Bible and NT stories that "true" Christian/Bible believers are supposed to take literally. But at some point, more and more of them stop insisting on it being literal. Like the Pentecostal kinds of Christians take the gifts of the spirit very literal. They believe that Jesus and God can and will heal them. So, some of them take it to the extreme and don't go to doctors and don't take any medications and trust the God will heal them of cancer and other diseases.
Then, my all-time favorite Christians, for taking things too far, are the snake handlers. Because on verse says that a believer in Jesus will be able to drink deadly poison and will be able to pick up serpents and not be harmed, they drink poison and handle rattlesnakes... and lots of them get maimed or die.
So, even with Christians that claim to "believe" literally hit a point to where they start to use their brains, and figure, "No, it's just too crazy to believe that." Yeah, but a literal 6-day creation a few thousand years ago, talking animals, a world-wide flood, a virgin birth and people coming back from the dead were believable? Or is it because those other extreme literal beliefs can get a person dead? So, they take the time to analyze those verses and question them before they go all in and say they believe and then act on them?
Yes, thank you! I'm not sure I would put it the way you have here, but I think you're getting at a similar concept that I've had in the back of my mind that's sometimes difficult to express to believers.
I've met Catholics that don't believe in Satan or demons, because that's just too weird for them. They believe in God but, for whatever reason, draw the line at Satan? Really? It seems so bizarre and arbitrary to me.
If they can accept that Satan is a metaphor and doesn't exist, why can't they accept that God is a metaphor and doesn't exist? If they believe that the kingdom of Heaven is within us, then why can't they let go of a belief in a literal afterlife?
I think there are a number of "cultural Christians" who like the idea of Heaven and a loving God watching over them, so they suspend their disbelief when they celebrate Christian holidays, go to church functions, or pray in private. They might self-identify as an agnostic Christian, a lapsed Catholic, or "questioning," because they realize that they don't actually believe, deep down. It's more that they're a part of the Christian subculture and/or haven't really stopped identifying as the religion they were raised with.
Ironically, I think those are the people that are the most antagonistic towards atheists, in my experience. The Bible-thumping, true-believing Christians will want to convert me out of a genuine concern for my soul. These Christian nontheists are the ones who see my atheism as a some kind of edgy counter-cultural lifestyle, rather than a genuine philosophical position, because they project their own cultural tribalism onto me.
Those are the Christians that I wish would just rip off the band-aid, admit they're atheists, and leave the toxic hate groups masquerading as church communities behind.