> I am tempted to be this proud at times, but I aspire to be more humble than that.

I guess I would want to encourage you to be a lot less humble, it's not particularly difficult to be better than the bible, at least as far as moral rules go. Just drop the slavery and you have a better moral guideline, to give a trivial example.

> 1. It has proven to hold a lot of counter-intuitive truth in my life. When I follow the teaching in the Bible, things go better for my and the people I love. Of course, you don't know me, so it's probably not a very convincing thing to hear from a stranger on the internet.

Better than what? I can well imagine that there are far worse books/doctrines/ideologies to follow than many forms of christianity--I would just question the suggestion that there aren't far better sources of life advice than the bible.

> 2. The teachings of the Bible are a very complete and internally consistent, which is a quality you would expect from a Holy Book, but is surprisingly absent from many (most?) life philosophies, in my opinion.

(a) What is your measure of completeness?

(b) Well, I am not particularly convinced of the internal consistency.

(c) Any good story is internally consistent, inconsistencies are a sign of a bad writer, and not much more.

(d) "Holy book" isn't really a well-defined term to me that I could say what I would expect from one.

(e) There is one important thing that's IMO missing both from your list and from the bible: Consistency with reality.

> Of course. Though I'm having a hard time understanding exactly what your question means. Perhaps you are asking if I think the material world is important? The answer to that specific question is also yes.

Well, the problem is: What do you do if the consequences of actions the bible tells you are morally right that you can observe in reality turn out to be bad? Do you stick to the bible, thus causing harm, or do you dismiss the bible, thus acknowledging it can be wrong? Don't try to give me an answer, I have an idea what it would be, it's more important that you think about it, because that is the type of harm the article is talking about, where people cause harm with the intention to do good.

> I suppose you could also be asking if I think I'll get blowback for my opinions?

No, I would be far more concerned about other consequences for yourself. Living with a delusion (or similar, this is not a medical diagnosis) can have quite bad consequences once the affected person notices their state of affairs and the missed opportunities and all that.

> But if I let personal concerns take precedence over my loyalty to God, then how much do I really believe that God is real, powerful, and loving? I've been lonely and poor before. I'd rather go back to that than reject the person who means the most to me.

Seriously, and I am neither joking nor trying to be mean, but you possibly might want to seek professional help. If your religious belief means much to you, I wouldn't want to take it away from you unnecessarily, and maybe things aren't as they seem to me, but unlike real people, god does not actually exist, and you cannot expect anything tangible from god if you need help, so if your religion keeps you from having real social contacts, I would urge you to change that, it's probably not good for you in the long run. Other people will largely honor your loyalty with their support for you, god won't. If you have social contacts in a church or similar, my concerns might not apply, as long as it's not a church that tries to isolate you from the rest of society.

I hope you don't take this wrong, but the way you write in that last paragraph really makes me concerned.