Fair play BBT :up:
My scriptural knowledge is by no means detailed but it's certainly serviceable, having been raised semi-Christian (more from my parents' wish to have us learn some morals in early life rather than anything else) until I gave the game away at around 15, when I discovered I didn't actually need ancient scripture in order to know right from wrong, and didn't need permission from any heavenly entity to do exactly what I felt like.
Anyway, I'm well aware of the message of the bible as I grew up having it thrust upon me at primary school by a "subject" called RI or Religious Instruction, which was basically Sunday School at proper school (this was in a small country town in the early 80s, no surprise), then having it thrust upon me further at high school (to my displeasure) in so-called Religious "Education" Seminars, which were quite fun as they'd usually devolve into evolution debates (my science teacher father would have been proud
).
Anyway, autobiography aside, it seems you're taking personally what I meant generally, but which I still stand by. People from all three sides of the "good" book used, and still use it (or bits of it) to justify their bigotry & violence towards those of the other side and even toward those of their own side - you only need to look at the Protestant-Catholic and Sunni-Shiite schisms to realise how destructive a disagreement on theological detail can be.
It's not the highly questionable historical veracity or philosophical detail (the core of which seems to mirror practically every other mainstream religion and isn't all that unique) of the bible that I'm questioning - that would take some time and there are many more able scholars than me producing books and articles at a rate of knots on the subject right now - rather its usefulness to humankind as an instruction manual for life. If it (or any holy book) was definitive and totally black & white about what it requires from its adherents (as you may expect if it were the words of a supreme being), the fact is that there wouldn't have been, and wouldn't be, any religious wars, disagreements or inquisitions between religions or their factions. There wouldn't be any half-hearts, moderates, strict observers and fundamentalist murderers because everyone would have the same playbook and the same rules and everyone would worship in the same way. The fact that there are so many different varieties of Muslim & Christian and Jew (to name only the big three) says to me that noone has the definitive version of the word of god, precisely because no such version exists. These scriptures and the religions they support are human inventions, designed by humans long ago for purposes that can't be fully understood. They survived, in the same way many irrational beliefs & superstitions survive, by being passed on through stories and conversations and popular culture. We've all heard the ones about how black cats, broken mirrors, chain letters, opening umbrellas inside etc. can all bring you bad luck. We've all heard stories about witches and boggarts and leprechauns and bunyips and The Force and the sasquatch but we (mostly) don't believe them. Our societies grew out of them, just like kids grow out of leaving cake for Santa Claus. Eventually I believe our societies will leave religion behind (or merely leave it on the sidelines) as we discover it's not generally all that useful to our species, but it could take a while for us to get to that point of artificial de-selection. In the short term I think it's high time it was allowed a lot less influence than it has in several parts of the world right now, including (but not limited to) Washington, London, Canberra (it's not that bad now but give it time), Baghdad, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Kabul (don't discount the Taliban just yet), Riyadh, many Third World countries where AIDs is rampant but, unfortunately, so is the "no condoms" doctrine ...
However, while I don't subscribe to it, I find religion and its evolution fascinating and I wish to buggery I had cable TV so I could soak up documentaries about it like a sponge