How do non-literal interpretations of religious texts make sense to religious people?
I wasn't raised in a relgion, nor am I currently religious. I don't really like the term atheist, but that is probably the best way to describe my worldview. I was taught some old testament stories in primary school, but they were framed the same way as fairy tales and greek myths. That is to say, I do get a non-literal interpretation from a non-religious perspective, but I don't get how this would work for a religious person.
If you're Christian and believe there is a god and Jesus died for our sins (bonus question about this at the end), how do you decide what is literal and what isn't? Is it just that the pope (read: church leadership) decides what parts should be seen as literal and what parts aren't? I'm not saying that a literal interpretation of the bible would be better, but it does seem more internally consistent as an outside observer.
If you already see some parts as allegory, what makes someone certain other parts are literal? If non-literal interpretations removed all the supernatural stuff and just looked at the text fully as an allegory, that would make sense to me. Like following Christian morality, but no believing in a god or going to heaven. It's the mixing of both interpretations that doesn't make any sense to me at all.
Thanks in advance for anyone taking the time to inform me. I'm not certain if this is the correct place to post this, so if it isn't could someone please point me to the correct place.
Bonus Question:
Why do some Christians seem mad about Jesus dying? While I'm not religious, I do live in a country that observes Christian holidays, so I am somewhat familiar with his story. As I understand it, he was sent to earth to absolve us of our sins by dying (and then coming back three days later and then ascending into heaven like a month after that). To be fair, I'm also not quite sure what "absolving us of our sins means", but it is talked about like it's a good thing. The entirety of Christianity is based around him dying, he even knew and talked about him dying, so why are some Christians angry about this? I also see this paired with antisemitism, blaming "the jews" for killing Jesus, but shouldn't they love them for killing Jesus? Also, wasn't it the Romans that crucified him?