After reading through scores of discrepancies and contradictions I'm convinced that it is was a tool for power in the early Church between the council of Nacea till Martin Luther and the dawn of the protestant movement. I'm no expert, but I understand that in Catholic Churches, particularly in the earlier ones, it was the priest who read the book and the commoners who listened.

The dooms day prophesies and the damnation message attached to them, strike me as a fear-tool keeping the religious in church and in check.

The contrasting views that man has always had, when passed off as divine doctrine, create greatly varying sects and denominations of the church. This is what I attribute today's decline of Christianity to.

If you are an ex-Christian why are you worried about what others think?

I don't get the point of this thread. Are you bored and just trying to strike up a conversation or are you afraid you may have missed something in the Bible because you came up, more or less empty handed in your studies and beliefs?

I wish I wish I wish that for even ONE day, everyone would forget about religion and focus on being human instead of 'children of God' or whomever.

The Bible belongs on the bookshelf neatly sandwiched between Erich Von Daniken's Chariots Of The Gods and Dr. Zuess' The Cat In The Hat.
At any time the Bible may be removed from said shelf space to make room for P.D. Ouspensky's A New Model Of The Universe.

I'm not sure what the Bible's place in today's society is although I know its one of the most (if not the most) commonly shoplifted books. So apparently people don't care for the Bible's message, but they still value it in some strange way. Makes you think...