I was told that the dinosaurs were the animals that weren’t allowed on the Ark and all the scientists knew it. Also that the universe was only a few thousand years old.

I grew up in the 90s and in Mexico and I was taught the same thing. I still didn’t end up religious but that’s because my family always pushed for critical thinking and was pro science. Tbf they also grew up in an age and area where they saw older family legit die of shit that was preventable with medicine that might not have existed yet or was unavailable in their poor town.

Some random cult leader pastor: YoU hAvE tO ReAd ThE bIbLe LiTeRaLlY Also some random pastor: “This verse from the Bible is not a contradiction to what I just said, you have to read between the lines”

Yes

The problem is religious texts are generally vague and come from cultures hundreds or thousands of years ago. That lets people claim they speak for god or know “the truth” and cherry pick and twist meanings until they get the answer they want. I’ve listened in on bible studies where they pick over the tiniest word and inflate it into a huge story. They’d make all sorts of assumptions about it “This is what they meant!” I’d be thinking “Really? You got all of that out of one word that can be interpreted a number of ways?”