There are many sacred texts from a variety of traditions that are inspiring and informative which teach us about the divine. The fact that the Bible has not been given verbatim by God does not mean that it is without use or value. This is what you do not understand. Fundamentalists engage in black-and-white thinking. The world is much more complex than that. Most things are shades of gray. The fact that there is a lot of utter nonsense and misinformation in the Bible (due primarily to tortured explanations resulting from ignorance about how the world actually works) does not mean that there are not things which are inspiring and uplifting and of value to human kind. The writers of the Bible may have gotten many things wrong, but they were doing the best they could to describe the relationship between human kind and the divine based upon limited knowledge. Some things they got right. It is not an either or situation.

I have been a Christian my whole life and have degrees in ministry as well as a bachelors of arts degree in philosophy and religion from a top-notch liberal arts college. I find that the Christian faith, when intelligently understood and applied, provides the blueprint for living a fulfilled purposeful life. My faith does not include the simplistic literalist orientation and narrow minded self-righteous legalism of most fundamentalist denominations. It can be summarized in three words for which I claim no pride of authorship. They were shared with me by a very thoughtful and devout Catholic priest. Simply, the Bible can be boiled down to this, “Love. No buts…”. If any of your beliefs are in conflict with this simple command, it is time to re-examine what you believe and why you believe it. It likely has little to do with the nature of God and His standards.

As a starting point, try reading Adam Hamilton‘s, Making Sense of the Bible. He is a well respected and prolific Methodist minister. It is a well written analysis of how to read the Bible intelligently, and weed out those parts that clearly have no application to modern society. Once you gain some perspective, we can continue the discussion. Continuing to selectively recite snippets of scripture is neither convincing nor useful. It is an exercise in a meaningless illogical tautology. (I believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Therefore it is the final authority on God’s standards for human behavior. But this begs the question because you have made an assumption about its inerrancy and authority that IS the question. On what independent evidence do you base this conclusion? You don’t have any. And no, don’t cite Hebrews 11:1. I know it well and I believe mystery is part of authentic faith.)

We really have nothing to discuss if you persist in your dogmatic, narrow minded attitudes. The writers of much of the Bible may have gotten many things wrong, but they were doing the best they could to describe the relationship between mankind and the divine. Some things they got right.