I'm sorry, but your answer is simply too... simplistic. These stories have been presented as _fact_ for thousands of years. Long before they were bound together in a book, they were told to children and adults alike - yes, as a moral lesson, but as if they really, truly happened. That's the ongoing battle today; many, many, many people are being taught that those stories are the true, unadulterated word of a god. Suddenly, the new Christians are realizing that there's actually no way to pack 2 (or 7) of every type of creature into a boat? I'm sorry (truly), but I'm not buying it. The genocide of the Caananites isn't a parable, or an example of how you should act. The torture of Job is a very bad life lesson (remain loyal to your god even if he tortures you on a bet? That's messed up.) Most of the stories in the old testament were about showing what happens when you disobey god, or examples of those who obeyed god even under extreme circumstances. For that to have relevance, you have to know who that god is, and that is defined in the same tome. Which parts are true, and which are parables? Which parts should show us the right path for modern times, and which are examples of the horrors that were considered normal in that age (killing your child for disobeying?).

No, this viewpoint doesn't work for me. If the book is a work of truth, and I should be living my life by its words, I'm going to have to do things and think things that are repugnant to me as a human being. I don't hate the gays, I don't think people who belong to other religions should be killed, I don't want to beat my wife, regardless of the size of the rod. It seems to me that you're picking the truths that fit your view of modern humanity, when it seems to me that the laws created by a god who is omnipotent and omniscient should not change with the whims of human culture. I do not believe that you get to have it both ways.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and "Judge not, lest ye be not judged" are the only two things I've ever found in that book that seem relevant to reality; I already believed those before I opened the pages.

And there are others who are willing to kill you for believing that it's not meant to be taken literally.

Personally, I have to wonder what value you see in the bible as a religious document if you don't believe that what it says is the truth. That statement truly is not meant as a flame or an attack - as a lifelong student of religion, I simply do not understand the new line that's being take by those who seek to create this new, happier Christianity. The idea seems to be to believe in the idea of the god defined in the bible, while not believing stories that define that god's dogma and motivations, and which seek to explain its actions.

What truth do you glean from a document that is not the truth? And why believe in the (apparently arbitrary) values that you've decided that the bible REALLY means, rather than those that are explicitly stated?

Again - not a flame, though I expect many will take it as such. I simply do not understand the mindset.

That's not really a backup strategy, unless you have many, many hard drives. It's not just a matter of backing up today's data, but also of being able to access yesterday's data if something got accidentally deleted today. You also need to be able to access last week's data, in case something got trashed the day before yesterday and no one noticed until today. Swapping in new hard drives every day just isn't going to cut it.

Tape drives are cheap - tape cassettes are cheaper yet. Software to automate your backup scheme is a little more expensive, but it's a one-time expense that you can use for a very long time. Over time, a tape backup system is a lot cheaper than swapping in new drives every so often, and as a bonus, it's also more reliable.