The Jewish attitude is that God wants us to debate these laws, and that if we come up with interpretations that seem counter to the literal verses in the Bible, then that's totally OK. The rules were given to people to interpret, and now it's up to us to do that as accurately as possible.
There is a Karaite community in Israel, and I've read some fascinating newspaper articles about them. Claiming that they only accept the literal word of the Bible, without any interpretation, is a bit far-fetched, given that the Bible is so ambiguous and self-contradictory. But some of their interpretations, such as the date of the Shavuot holiday, are pretty reasonable -- except that Jews have basically voted with their feet to reject those interpretations.
I think that Karaites are pretty cool, even if (or perhaps because) they're not mainstream. And they demonstrate, I think, Judaism's penchant for pluralism.