I like AlmostAtheist's comments
It promotes polygamy, then doesn't. It shows heroes going to prostitutes. It shows double-standards in punishment, with one man being executed for collecting sticks on the sabbath, while a king lives on after murder.
All of the above is shared by me.
A reasonable moral code could easily exist without the Bible.
It does exist outside of Bible-influenced areas.
Here's my take on the Bible:
When Cyrus returned Hebrews to Israel, this group of YHWH worshippers seemed
to have their god's favor, because they had permission to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
People in Israel started worshipping YHWH above other gods. The priests decided to write
a set of laws for the people- IN ORDER TO CONTROL THEM, GET THEM TO GIVE
DONATIONS TO THE PRIESTS- as priests ALWAYS want that.
Later, the priests gathered all the legends and stories of this culture, re-wrote or
recorded them for the first time. Most may have been anonymous, some were given
famous names as authors to give weight to their sayings. As time went on, a bit
more re-writing when people did not like a story, or when it was discovered that one
thing contradicted another, adding famous names to more and more writings.
Many things that were supposedly written as prophetic of Jesus Christ were actually
about WISDOM or were about THE KING of ISRAEL/ JUDAH being the son of God.
(It helps to flatter the king.) These were re-written again and the person spoken of
became generic, remove the name since that king is dead. Over time, these came
to be accepted as GOD'S WORD.
These YHWH worshippers were great at editing or writing- but no better than many
writers today. They combined some stories with contradictions in them, they sometimes
clearly made the moral point, and sometimes not so clearly, and sometimes did not
make a moral point at all.
As for Christians, Jesus was a Jew who knew his Hebrew scriptures. He decided that he
needed to ride into Jerusalem on an ass to "fulfill" prophecy, and claim other stuff, too.
When he was executed, instead of running scared, the Apostles/ Disciples decided to
continue the charade. Besides telling tall tales, they wrote tall tales, consulting their
Hebrew scriptures. Matthew and Luke did not even get their stories exactly the same.
Luke neglects to take Jesus thru Egypt. Perhaps that flaw was discovered after Luke's writings
and a trip to Egypt was added by Matthew (probably not the actual writers). Otherwise,
similar to the Hebrews, they edited their stories and got the gospels. Paul's letters and other
letters (if indeed written by the named authors) were never intended to be GOD's Word, but priests
(yes, priests again) re-wrote them and elevated their importance.
I posted this info before, but I really think you needed to know, Wanderer.
Of course, I could be wrong, and God inspired it all- he just wants us to be confused until we
dig deep into it.
