Certainly! Most, if not all fundamental religious handbooks are also easily described as "handbooks for having a peaceful society". It was the misuse of these teaching for control by leaders and zealots that bastardized the underlying good life lesson therein. Now the mumbo-jumbo parts...that's just pinache and artistic license.

I do value the ethics in parts of the Bible. In some parts, though, the ethics are not good at all. I do not take any part of the Bible on blind faith. I study it, interpret it reasonably, and apply it to my life as I see fit. I am the judge of how I use the Bible to enrich my own life.

Of course, the stories are mostly mythological. Like Aesop's Fables, the stories are not to be believed, but the morals of the stories can give us valuable insights.

Sure, there’s some good stuff in there. Don’t kill, don’t steal, be humble and nice to people. That’s good stuff for the most part.

Religion is a human artifact. One would expect much of what religion teaches to be a reasonable guide to a harmonious society.

I do not believe in the bible, but sure, there are lots of people who take the bible as a spiritual metaphor, not literally.

I don't. The NT talks of "Jesus" aren't very good and to add the parts of that supposed guy called Saul/Paul aren't much better.

I think that morality, like most things, is subjective to the era in which we live. The Bible as a whole is too dated to be pointed to as a good source of ethics and morality. The fact that some of it's teachings are used to fuel hatred is a good enough reason to disregard it and find teachings elsewhere.

There is, it seems, a scarlet thread of truth that runs though most all religious systems. I attribute it to the fact that total bullshit is a pretty hard sell! None the less, by combining study of all (most) religion with the eventual rejection of most (all) of it
my original tendency to second quess myself regarding all related subjects has been replaced by a peaceful, comfortable confidence. That is invaluable. Also, history and religion, while often presented on the same page, are very different

There is, it seems, a scarlet thread of truth that runs though most all religious systems. I attribute it to the fact that total bullshit is a pretty hard sell! None the less, by combining study of all (most) religion with the eventual rejection of most (all) of it
my original tendency to second quess myself regarding all related subjects has been replaced by a peaceful, comfortable confidence. That is invaluable. Also, history and religion, while often presented on the same page, are very different

A pastor on the radio yesterday (1A) stated that there are 270 separate bible passages that endorse slavery. No thank you. I will pass on the whole shebang.

I look at some of the teachings in the bible as a good conduct handbook, that’s about it.

For all of the Blood that was spilled over it, I cannot give an value whatsoever. If your a fan of Joel Olsteen, Jimmy Swaggert, Pat Robertson et al then your totally lost. For a Book that evolved from the Council of Nicea under the directive of a Pagan Emperor who looked to centralize the Populace. So if you think that embellished stories that are meshed with Pagan Rituals to ease the transformation then I would have give you a "no" on that one.
Now if you want to go and explore the lost books of the Gospels that were destroyed and some which have been recently discovered in Caves of Iran and various other places, I would be interested in seeing what they contain. I have gone into reading such authors such as Bart Erhman, Martin Luther, Bruce Metzger, Anthony Pinn and Noam Chomsky.

No.......

Would I change my support of something from good to bad if it was also the moral of a Bible verse? I am a big proponent of critical thinking and the Bible has no influence on my thinking one way or the other.

The Moralities and Ethics of decent human kind were never derived from the bible nor any other religion based ideology. They came about, more than likely, as early humans went from being isolated family type clans into more co-operative Tribal Groups, religious beliefs merely hi-jacked these moral and ethical codes for their own ends and means since man has been a somewhat moral and ethical being since long, long before religions were ever invented.

I agree that religion contains ethics BUT ethics does not require religion. I believe that to be a good person, one should have a set of ethics to live by, but I don't believe that one has to have religion to be a good person.

I've read much of the bible, and although I reject the supernatural aspects, I've found some of the teachings of Jesus to be reasonable and actually supportive of the Humanist philosophy...boils down to "Don't be an ass." I helped my daughter through a suicidal time with it - she was raised Catholic thanks to my ex, and thought god hated her because she's lesbian. I talked to her using Jesus as the base...e.g. if he was around today, he'd support the LGBT community, as he always sought out those marginalized by mainstream society.

Agreed 100%

Well, there are pleny of good things, that can be found in the Bible and are worth following, however there are also pleny of horrible things.
So the answer is to think about the Bible as most of the Christians do - to cherrypick. We can use good bits and leave the rest behind.

ya, we have turned faith into beliefs but it is likely meant to be much closer to what we would now tell someone who has never flown on a plane before, and is apprehensive about it; iow, "the dangerous part was the trip here in the car." [abarim-publications.com]

The New Testament has many admirable messages...love thy neighbour...for instance. It also comes with magic and mysticism which are questionable, so we would need it cherrypick the passages with the messages we agree with and discard the rest. The Old Testament, is a horrific book with no merit whatsoever especially not in any historical or moral context and should never be used as anything except as an example of bad literature.

Now that I have listened to Jordan Peterson a whole lot, I do understand that there are deep truths to be found in the ancient traditions. The Testaments have a lineage from the past - through Egypt back to Mesapotamia. He has more or less covered Genesis but in doing so he discussed some ancient Akkadian gods too. This is book is part of who we are, Everyone used to read it a lot, so references to it pervade literature. It is worth having a familiarity with it. I agree that there are some dreadful wrong things in it that are not a guide or moral inspiration for anyone to follow. In amongst the history and stories there is gold.