A work colleague (and Christian) once told me about a former colleague who used to send a underling away on long business trips so that he could carry on an affair with his wife. I commented "very old testament", and my colleague looked puzzled. I explained "David and Bathsheba", and he frowned and changed the subject. The next day he asked me how I knew that, I told him that I can enjoy a good yarn without having to believe that every word of it was true. I was too polite to point out that he had to go away to look up a reference to something that he professed to be an expert on...

There are bits of wisdom to be found in all 'holy writings', but a lot more can be found outside of them. Most of the bible's wisdom is, in fact, self evident. It doesn't take a lot of thought to uncover every bit of wisdom contained in the bible and a great deal more without ever looking at it, plus you save yourself a lot of messy wading through bullshit. Take my advice, don't wade in the bullshit. It's untidy and you might catch something.

The core books of all religions are primarily cultural mythology designed to justify, support, and sustain the religion. Still, there are some valid thoughts contained within them, and we don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Don't forget the Bhavagad Gita book.

Although to some quoting a holy scripture because you find the passage meaningful, may be distasteful I do not believe that it is. Although it may not seem like it at times a good deal of philosophy is embedded in holy texts because it was through religion that people used to think about philosophical matters and many thoughts are described in religious texts through the stories. Therefore, I believe it is reasonable to use the philosophy described in scripture to defend whatever beliefs you wish. If you look at it another way there is no reason not to quote Ben Franklin (or most of the US Founding Fathers) about liberty and freedom just because they owned slaves. Their words still may ring true.