Comments to Bible as a source of morality

This is a question of Bible's inerrancy. Some claim it is a word of God start to finish, some say it has human errors in there.

The thing is, if we acknowledge that Bible isn't complete and inerrant, we can no longer use it as an authoritative book, then we treat it like any other book written by humans. Then no one should be saying 'because Bible says so' without providing any additional arguments to support his position. Because no one knows for sure which parts of Bible are 'inspired by Holy Spirit' and which are reflective of its many writers and editors charachters.

By all means, take the best of any book. Problem starts when you're waving your book in front of your fellow countryman and saying he can't marry his friend because your book says so. (i dodn't mean you personally)

Unfortunetely, I don't know much of Quran to offer substantial criticism. Reading it is a low priority so far, but some day I hope to make time for Islam and Judaism.

I have every reason to bash Christianity because it is prevalent in my country and I know quite a bit about it, being an ex believer myself, having read New Testament several times and listened to lots of preachers.

I think its time to grow out of religion in general. As long as we're picking and choosing which verses of the books make sense and apply today, might as well acknowledge we are the ones making the moral decisions, we use our own wit and moral feeling to determine whats right in the Bible and what isnt.

CryoHunniton, there are 2 websites that have Bible passages systematized by topic. You can find much more references there with cruelty, mysogyny, murder, rape, slavery... skepticsannotatedbible.com and evilbible.com

I haven't studied or lived abroad.

In Ukraine it's the totally different perception of religion's place in life and what it is 'to believe'. The vast majority calls themselves believers simply because they 'believe a God exists' and that God is most likely a Christian God. They don't go to church (maybe once a year on xmas).

Religion is considered private here. People don't ask each other what their religious beliefs are, friends can not touch this topic for years I guess. And that's why we don't have a strong atheist movement here either. As long as church stays out of politics it's fine, nobody minds it being there. There are no prayers in schools, religion is hardly ever mentioned by politicians. Sometimes, of course, we have some religious nuts crawling out and trying to impose their fairy-tale based values on the society, i.e. ban abortions, but that - thank Flying Spaghetti Monster - hasn't been getting much support.