The Bible is Law and Should Be Followed Accordingly

I will be making the claim that the Bible alone is not a fitting starting point for personal moral laws. Pro will be countering my claim and attempting to prove that the Bible provides an entirely credible foundation for a person's/group's set of moral laws. I start by making my argument, in which I will divide it into the following key points. 1) Open to Multiple Interpretations Even if the bible is accepted as the "infallible word of God" which may thus be used as the ultimate authoritative source for moral laws, it is nevertheless open to multiple interpretations. It is well-known that human language is inherently imprecise and it can really only be used as a subjective map of feelings, symbols, and personal experiences. Communication is thus highly dependent on context. The social mores are dependent on historical context, local traditions, common experiences, etc. Given that the bible is a set of books that was compiled over thousands of years, the task of deciphering its contextual meaning and extrapolating it to the present time practically impossible. Evidence of this may be gleaned from the shear number of christian denominations and their conflicting and often contradictory moral precepts. This is particularly telling among conservative christian groups that proclaim that the bible is their sole moral guide; nevertheless, these groups cannot seem to agree on an unequivocal set of biblical laws to live by. 2) The Bible is in fact fallible It is plagued with contradictions, historical inaccuracies, multiple edits, theological incompatibilities, etc. There is a deep and reliable tradition of biblical scholarship that studies the bible and its historical transmission to us through ordinary, fallible human processes. In particular, it is widely accepted by most scholars that only 7 of the epistles attributed to the apostle Paul were actually written by him. This is significant because the other six epistles sometimes deviate significantly from the teachings contained in Paul's authentic letters. For example, in the "pseudo-letter", 1 Timothy, the author says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. " (1 Tim 2:12) On the other hand, in the authentic letter to the Romans, Paul instructs the church to listen to the "minister" Phoebe: "I recommend to you Phoebe our fellow believer, who is a minister of the assembly in Cenchrea, so that you will admit her into your company, the Lord's company, in a manner worthy of the people devoted to God, and stand by her in whatever matters she needs you to help in. For indeed she became a presiding officer over many, and over me also! " (Rom 16:1-2) The contrast between these verses alone may be enough to establish that the bible is not reliable as an absolute source of moral law. Sources "The Authentic Letters of Paul", by Arthur J. Dewey, Roy W. Hoover, Lane C. McGaughy, and Daryl D. Schmidt . http://en.wikipedia.org... . http://en.wikipedia.org... . http://www.patheos.com... . http://en.wikipedia.org... . http://www.academia.edu... New Testament sources: The Source New Testament New International Version New American Standard