The bible is a book of hate that manipulate people into doin unhumanistic things and have lower compassion for those that are not under its control.

simply a collection of stories handed down orally for many years, then put into print, and edited as needed. in other words, just a book.

Absolutely nothing, zero relevance.

Use it as a feminine product for my menses. Oh...wait, this supposed God is the one who cursed me and all women with a period since the fall of Eve in the first place.

Interesting mythology, along the same lines as Bullfinch's "Age of Fable".

It is a combination of books that reflect some identity issues of Christians and Jews. It was also impacted by Zoroastrianism. It has some good literature, but religious people, looking for a quick fix, are unable to find. There is some really horrible stuff in scripture as well. Discernment skills are necessary if one wishes to get the good out of biblical literature. Reifying or turning texts into doctrinal truths is to head off amuck. The Bible is a vast undertaking often undertaken by a halfvast people.

Toilet paper!

It's a book that I read most of while attending university. Other than that, it's a collection of stories that may or may not have value to the reader. In the right hands, it's a foundation for some interesting discussions. In the wrong hands, it's a brutal weapon.

The cause of centuries of division.

An old fiction book that is considered to be true by vested interests, and a large number of people who believe the vested interests, that the book is true.
It is the same for all religious texts.

Texas Monthly Magazine

Historical reference.

Also being discovered is that the whole thing took place in Scotland. That J.C., King Arthur, Merlin and the whole mythology of this magical person all originated and culminated within Caledonia - Scotland, before it was Scotland. There is the isle of Skye where they say that Mary Magdalen had a castle, was royalty and wealthy (not a prostitute - good grief), and that Jesus was the god Lugh - who was an Irish hero. There is just so much information mythologically to support these theories.

I tell people that Jesus was a Pagan Messiah, because he did practice a high level of science called magick, by ignorant lay people. The supernatural is not so 'super', at all. I know as I have experienced things that only few people believe. I am understanding and realizing the 'science' behind it - quantum physics, but Christianity is just a primitive culture who ooohs and aaaahs at these 'miracles'. Even though their messiah told them that they too would do them. I am with you Ceci, Harry Poitter is the Jesus of the modern age. You may like a few reads by Ralph Ellis where he and others have located a King at the time who is/was Jesus. The once and future king. I also believe that the character they call Merlin was the pagan version of the Christian messiah and that it is highly possible that Jesus and Merlin and King Arthur are one and the same? The more that I study and realize, the more this makes sense. 'The once and future King'. Hmph, that is what they say about J.C. after all. I also follow this path and I pull from any book or bible on the planet that I can draw a missing piece from to fit the historical records together. I do not believe that the bible is complete fiction, there is too much in it that makes sense, if one takes the time to understand it. Jesus was also a Yogi - and the Yogi's are well known for their magical abilities, he studied in India with the spiritual masters. Thanks for such a great post! I don't think that the character, or the name of the individual in question is accurate though.

The Bible is a compilation of myths and stories. It is akin to the Chinese ??? (Classic of Mountains and Seas) written around 4 BC. I was not able to find an English translation online though I think are books in English. Wiki entry:
[en.wikipedia.org]

Part Hebrew "history", part cultural moral strictures, and watered-down version of the Sumerian creation myths.

An ancient manuscripts edited over the centuries by despot leaders to conquer followers.

The Bible is perhaps the most popular collection of fictional stories in the history of mankind.

I've read more entertaining anthologies of fiction.

What is the bible to me? A smattering of fictional short stories.

I view the bible like I view the Iliad and the Odyssey, and other mythic books. It's fascinating how we can see politics shape their god. How battles between Moshite and Aaronid priests would constantly call into question offering sacrifices in the Temple only, versus on the "high places." And yet... it would somehow go on to take over the world and many would view it as fact.

Much of the earlier books, what are called the Old Testament by most Christians, is the 2,500-3,000 year old recordation of an oral tradition going back about a thousand years before people wrote it down. So it's a lot of mythology and recitation of poetry (a great deal of it rhymed in the original language, to make it easier to remember) and I take that mythology the same way I do Greco-Roman or Egyptian mythology, as a window into a culture otherwise long gone, which may in some case be tall tales of events that may have had some resemblance in actual events. For instance, we can read about the adventures of King David, and it's not implausible that there really was a neolithic figure like David who was a king, or what we today would likely call a warlord.

The slightly more recent stuff are probably contemporaneous recordations of prophets, people who wandered in from the desert to deliver messages of moral and religious and political reform, responding to events of the day.

Much of the New Testament, the Gospels and the Acts, are basically retcons of the Pauline church, which was a splinter movement from a mystic cult that arose within Judaism in the 1st century BCE. Jesus was originally a "celestial being," like an angel, who was supposed to mystically appear and communicate with members of this cult; over time, he was morphed into the fulfillment of the Messiah myth which became politically prominent after Pompey brought Judea under Roman rule. So the cult retcons their celestial messenger into an earthly Messiah, and then Saul changes his name and starts re-retconning that to make it palatable to Gentiles. The other part of the cult, headed by James of Jerusalem, gets swamped out because there's way more Gentiles than Jews at that point in time.

Paul's Epistles are his attempt (with some help from others) to set out responses to theological, moral, cultural, and political challenges his followers faced. To give Paul credit where it's due, most (though not all) of the moral teachings in his school of Christianity are morally defensible. Which doesn't make it true that a man was tortured to death and then resurrected.

And the Book of Revelation is drug-addled nonsense, the recorded fever dreams of a third century CE religious fanatic under the influence of a powerful hallucinogen.

The Christian Bible to me has always been akin to Aesop's Fables. It is merely a collection of tales from which to draw guidance. It is ultimately a means for man to maintain power over other men and has been used as such for centuries.

A brainwashing tool.

What we call the Christian bible is actually a "Frankenstein" creature of many parts and books of various times sewn together to make one big book that pretends to tell us everything from beginning to end. The problem is this just is not so. It is a collection of stories and not just one big story. It also contradicts itself if you take it as one big story. There was no first man or first woman, etc. No Egyptian captivity, no Exodus, no King David. Just no evidence for these things. They are just stories. Along came Saul of Tarsus a bit later and he almost single handedly created Christianity. He never met Jesus and he was not trusted by the disciples. In fact, in his wondrous visions he never even knew if he was "in or out of his body." Still, believers tell you that you just have to have faith. Many will tell you of the 500 people that Paul claimed saw the risen Jesus, but where is the proof of this? Did the 500 have "faith?"