I am often perplexed by the way some non-Jews hold the Bible up as the source of truth or most perfect of books. While I don't think any person, theist or atheist, questions the sincerity of this type of belief, I as a Jew think it is quite misdirected and often destructive.
This is a book not of facts but of truths. It is a book of lessons, hard learned by my stubborn ancestors. It has stories about us constantly failing, proving unfaithful time and again, and stoning practically every prophet God sent to us.
We took these lessons and placed them in various narratives, sometimes poetry, other times mythology, mixed in parable and proverb, and often dressed them up dramatically for effect. But the end story has yet to be written. And this is probably what most religious people miss too often.
There is so much fighting in the Bible, so much hatred, so much argument, so much unnecessary killing. It is not by chance that such things litter the narrative of Scripture from its beginning to end, but it is often what believers ignore the most. These things are connected, very much connected.
It does nothing to love and honor the Bible more than the human who lives beside you. It doesn't matter if that human worships a hundred gods or none. If you can't learn to love your neighbor, sooner or later one of you is going to stab the other and blood will be shed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Bible is about people of various religions constantly at war and shedding blood...people who are religious. I don't recall seeing an atheist in the Bible doing these things.
It isn't religion or lack of religion that creates hatred. It isn't religion or lack of religion that distorts love. Humans have the capacity to blame and point the finger at everything and anybody else but themselves when it comes to the real problems in life. A book, no matter how sacred or its source will not and cannot solve our problems and bring us peace if we aren't willing to really bring those things to everybody, regardless of who that person is.
We, humans, distort all things. We distort religion, we distort atheism, we distort science, we distort one another. We are the distortion. We have the ability to continue down this path or stop ourselves, but we would rather not stop ourselves if this means admitting we are wrong. We'll do anything but that, and will even take another's life before we give up our pride whether we are religious or not.
The Bible is not the story of the chosen people of God being better than everyone else. It's about God choosing to love people who don't deserve it. It's a demonstration of how far God is willing to go to love even the good and faithful, let alone my people who have abandoned him many times throughout history.
The stories don't have to be fact-filled to be true. By considering that our own point of view is correct and that our neighbor's is automatically wrong when it does not align with our own shows we don't get the Bible at all. We are often what is the most false about the Bible, not its words.
The Bible is about God loving people who don't love him back. It's about God loving people who don't believe in him, who constantly run after ever other god imaginable but him, who don't deserve God's care and affection and love...but who get it anyway, because that's how loving God is.
If you constantly bring up points that aggravate your neighbor instead of loving them for who they are and where they are, then how is that bringing the Bible to them? Shouldn't we be imitating God by loving people who don't love you, who don't worship God, who don't believe in him or your views, loving them because God loves them regardless of what they think of him? If you can't do that, all the arguments you raise here to try to convince others about the Bible's value are moot.
The Bible is not true because of what's written on its pages. It's true when it makes others like the God in its pages. If you don't love the failures, the faithless, the haters, the hated...they won't believe in you.
People only believe in those they love. People only believe in things they choose to believe in. Belief is a choice. Why choose to believe in something when that something or someone doesn't show that they believe in you? I don't believe in the message of people who hate me or even do as little as show disrespect for my point of view. I don't believe others owe me any different if I treat them that way.
In my opinion, it shows great disrespect to people of other convictions, philosophies, creeds or lack thereof to constantly parade the Bible as something they are failing. I believe when believers do that, it is they, the believers who are truly failing the Bible.
Francis of Assisi stated that Christians should proclaim the Gospel at all times, and when it called for to use words. What he meant was that the Bible's message was not something you find in a page or can argue about on a forum like this. It's found in acts of love that believers perform willingly and to everyone, regardless of creed. If people are arguing back at you when you think you are championing the Bible, it might mean that they do not feel loved by what we are doing.
And if people don't feel loved by what we are doing to them, how is that recommending the Bible?