In his 2012 book Why I Became an Atheist, the former theology student John Loftus lists among his many criticisms of the Hebrew Bible its belief in the existence of such fanciful creatures as satyrs and unicorns. Dave Armstrong points out the shallowness of this argument:
Unfortunately, the word “unicorn” appears in the King James Version (note that translations are not the Bible itself, and not infallible) nine times. But even the secular editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica wrote that “certain poetical passages of the biblical Old Testament refer to a strong and splendid horned animal called r’em. This word was translated ‘unicorn’ or ‘rhinoceros’ in many versions of the Bible, but many modern translations prefer ‘wild ox’ (aurochs), which is the correct meaning.”
The Hebrew word sa’ir appears about 52 times in the Old Testament, . . . and is used, for example, to speak of the male goat used as a sin offering on the Day of Atonement. For some reason the 1611 King James Version rendered sa’ir as “satyr” twice (Isaiah 13:21; 34:14). The surrounding contexts, however, prove that it is again referring to wild goats. Isaiah 13:21-22 makes reference to wild beasts, howling creatures, hyenas, and jackals (all real animals, last time I checked). Goats fit right in with this “zoo.”
Meanwhile, the Roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) literally believed in legendary creatures such as the manticore, basilisk, catoblepas, phoenix, and werewolf. Herodotus, Ovid, and Virgil wrote seriously about werewolves. [But] the ancient Hebrews (unlike the “sophisticated” pagan Greeks and Romans) did not believe in mythical animals.
Read more on National Catholic Register: http://ncregister.com/blog/darmstrong/the-bible-and-mythical-animals