Answers:
GENERAL INFORMATION
Inerrancy is used to refer to a text that is considered accurate, truthful, totally free of error, and without mistakes. It is often used by conservative theologians in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other religions to refer to their religions' holy books. Since all of these books teach different messages, only one can be inerrant. Perhaps none are. Still, inerrancy of their holy books is a major belief of conservatives of many religions.
Inerrancy is an extremely important principle. Within Christianity:
Many conservatives believe that the Bible is inerrant, is inspired by God, is the word of God, and is to be interpreted literally. A believer has an obligation to follow its dictates to the letter.
Many liberals believe that the Bible was written by individuals in ancient times who were promoting their own evolving spiritual beliefs, but who were limited by their tribal culture and by their lack of scientific knowledge.
Many liberals believe that it is important to go beyond their writings, and reject what they have to say on topics such as origins of species and of the universe, human slavery, the suppression of women, treatment of persons with a homosexual or bisexual orientation, religious intolerance, torturing prisoners, the death penalty, treatment of religious minorities, spanking children, executing non-virgin brides, etc.
Much of a person's or a faith group's theology follows naturally from their beliefs about inerrancy and whether their holy book should be interpreted literally. Many of the intra-religious and inter-religious conflicts can be traced directly back to beliefs of inerrancy and literal interpretation. This is thus a very important topic.
MORE INFORMATION
The doctrine of inerrancy allows for the Bible to be written in non-technical descriptions. We must allow for a biblical writer to explain a natural event from the point of view of an observer. An example of this is dew falling.
When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it (Numbers 11:9).
Although not scientifically precise this is exactly what it looks like from the vantage point of an observer. We do not need to assume the writer is making a scientific statement about the nature of the univ erse when such a statement is made. Inerrancy allows for these types of statements – it does not demand scientific precision.
Hope this helps.