Do you believe the Bible should be taken literally? (details inside)

This question is really for those of you who do not feel that the entire Bible should be taken literally.

How do you decide which parts should be literal and which shouldn’t? Is there someone else that decides for you, perhaps a pastor or a priest? The book itself does not offer guidelines, in fact as far as I know, there is nothing at all that indicates it shouldn’t be followed verbatim.

So how do you choose? And how confident are you that you are right?

I am posting this in social so that people can feel free to branch out from the topic naturally, but please try to keep the debates reeled in. I’m genuinely curious about this, and I don’t want it to turn into a war of words.