Apologetics - Common Arguments

---REPOST FROM XANGA SEPTEMBER 2010---

In one philosophy class, I had these arguments quickly brought up against the validity of the Bible:

lightly discussed was the fact that the Bible was not literally correct, even in things that it should be, such as:
1) Lev. 11:6 And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
The problem, rabbits do not chew cud - they do not ruminate (which is regurgitating your food then mixing it with saliva to eat it again: like cows) but they do eat their dung and mix it with their new food - another way of regurgitating. The Hebrew language doesn't quite differentiate b/w these two types of regurgitating, and so we can't hold this against them. gerah is defined by strong as 'chewing the cud', however Ma'alat means 'that lifts (the food)'  

2) 1 Kings 7:23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
The diameter was 10cubits, but the circumference was 30?! that doesn't sound right (10 cubits x (pi or 3.14) ) doesn't equal 30. However, we do know that often times, rounding was used to describe measurements that the common peoples would see. In fact, any measure of circumference would have to be rounded because pi is not a unique number. They also did not have the same precision for measuring. But, we may be able to expect 2 'significant digits' to be recorded (i.e. 31 instead of 30). So this explanation is not as strong as we would like.
Another thing to take into consideration, as Nehemiah (a Hebrew Rabbi and author of the earliest known Hebrew geometry book) says: "Since the people of the world say that the circumference of a circle contains three times and one seventh of the thread, take off that one seventh for the thickness of the walls of the sea on the two brims, then there remain, Thirty cubits did compass it round about."
Yet another thing to consider is if the 1st measurement, the 10 cubits, was actually 9.64ish. Then, the circumference would be 30.3ish.