I do value the ethics in parts of the Bible. In some parts, though, the ethics are not good at all. I do not take any part of the Bible on blind faith. I study it, interpret it reasonably, and apply it to my life as I see fit. I am the judge of how I use the Bible to enrich my own life.

Of course, the stories are mostly mythological. Like Aesop's Fables, the stories are not to be believed, but the morals of the stories can give us valuable insights.

I value all cultural artifacts when understood in the context of the time and place in which they were created.

I think stories are valuable in and of themselves so I would say yes, we can learn from the Bible’s stories. It’s all in the interpretation of the reader though, not some authority who is dictating to you it’s message.

The "teachings of the bible?" The bible is a 2000 year old book written by people who were four hairs removed from orangutans. There is nothing of value to be learned from the bible. It's filled with Iron Age superstition, scientific ignorance, immorality, contradictions, and outlandish claims of magical beings who wield infinite supernatural power.

It;s Mother Goose with gods, well, god.

Nah, I gave up on using religion as a source of morals. Too much hate, ignorance and corruption. The only reason Christianity seems to have developed ethics is becuase the societies they exist in demand ethical progress.

It's no wonder they overlap. The "divine wisdom" of the religious was simply stolen from, or modeled after, the common sense of common people.
One of the more annoying assertions from the religious is that non-believers get their morals from Christianity, when in actual reality it's the other way around.
Communities don't function because religion imposes values onto people. Religion flourishes in communities with strong social connections, and then takes credit for the prosperity, as it does for each and every single positive achievement of good people.

I value plenty of things in the bible. No murder, no theft, no flaunting your faith, etc.
Not as divine wisdom or authoritarian ethics. It just oh, so coincidentally happens to overlap with my conscience as a social mammal.

Would I change my support of something from good to bad if it was also the moral of a Bible verse? I am a big proponent of critical thinking and the Bible has no influence on my thinking one way or the other.

No.......

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

And when you understand that morality is a work product of society, not of religious faith ... then religious faith cannot depart very much from societal morality or it would be censured by society as ... immoral. As the Catholic Church is currently finding out.

The Bible is a vague template that is "timeless" in the sense that it can be adapted to the needs of the moment, so I think a lot of its moral teachings are just cherry-picked and have the host society's values projected onto them. "Thou shalt not kill" for example is such a universal concept across all societies that it's really not profound, it's kind of a "well, duh" sort of admonition.

Then there's the problem that the Bible is full of bad moral concepts. For example it doesn't decry slavery, it assumes it as a given and provides instructions to be both a good slave and a good slave-owner. In other words it's a product of its time and leads from behind. It's blind to the injustices of its era.

That said, sure, there are passages one can admire. I memorized Romans 13 as a child (the so-called "love chapter" ) and still admire its teaching for what it is. There are various Biblical aphorisms I can agree with. But neither is there any extraordinary wisdom or morality in its pages. It's just another book.

There is, it seems, a scarlet thread of truth that runs though most all religious systems. I attribute it to the fact that total bullshit is a pretty hard sell! None the less, by combining study of all (most) religion with the eventual rejection of most (all) of it
my original tendency to second quess myself regarding all related subjects has been replaced by a peaceful, comfortable confidence. That is invaluable. Also, history and religion, while often presented on the same page, are very different

I think that morality, like most things, is subjective to the era in which we live. The Bible as a whole is too dated to be pointed to as a good source of ethics and morality. The fact that some of it's teachings are used to fuel hatred is a good enough reason to disregard it and find teachings elsewhere.

I don't. The NT talks of "Jesus" aren't very good and to add the parts of that supposed guy called Saul/Paul aren't much better.

Religion is a human artifact. One would expect much of what religion teaches to be a reasonable guide to a harmonious society.

Very selectively sure, Ive learned some valuable things. I do wish I hadnt been forced/brainwashed into wanting to study it in as much detail as I did though. I could have gotten the good parts down in a day or two worth of sparks notes and casually read the few more interesting, poetic books over a summer. The main value in learning the bible as well as I did isnt because of its intrinsic value: its being unshakable in my lack of faith because I know more about the bible than 90% of christians.

Id second the others who remind you that the best biblical ethics didnt exactly originate there, but I agree in not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. There are plenty of benefits of myths and ritual to be gleaned and adapted from the religious. Id stress an equal study of eastern philosophy and ethics too, to help you see the similarities and differences between abrahamic and eastern cosmologies.

There are certain values which are universal; the Bible is not the only authority for them. The prohibition on killing people, for instance. There are other values in the Bible which most people reject, and rightly so. Support for slavery and genocide, for instance. You really have to cherry pick which ones you support and which ones you reject.

Definitely, and fwiw trust that God hates religion even more than we do. Virtually none of the things that Christians even believe are anywhere to be found in the Bible. [abarim-publications.com] is one good source imo

Could simply be that the message to be good to each other is something we all know instinctively at birth and find difficult to reject.

There are sociological elements in the bible that are of a pragmatic nature. "Judge not, lest ye be judged.", "Do not bear false witness against your neighbor." (lying AND gossiping...if you did not see it yourself, you are "bearing false witness" when you pass it on as fact.

The only thing I really took from the bible is "Treat others as you want to be treated." That pretty much says it all. I disregard the rest.

Some, certainly not all. Remember, the Bible is only a collection of stories.... Written by man... So it's actually the teachings of man from a long time ago.

The loving thy enemy as thyself parts? The do unto others as you would have them do unto you parts? Sure. I can go along with that stuff. The selling your wives and daughters in to slavery parts? The divinely sanctioned genocide parts? Not so much.

Yes, I think JC was a pretty tough, smart guy and I agree with most of what he reportedly taught. There’s nothing divine or unique there—other books are equally interesting.

Hindu scriptures especially attract me. Those ancient Indians actually addressed the deep questions of existence while the Hebrew Bible is a mixture of myth and history.

I agree that religion contains ethics BUT ethics does not require religion. I believe that to be a good person, one should have a set of ethics to live by, but I don't believe that one has to have religion to be a good person.

The Moralities and Ethics of decent human kind were never derived from the bible nor any other religion based ideology. They came about, more than likely, as early humans went from being isolated family type clans into more co-operative Tribal Groups, religious beliefs merely hi-jacked these moral and ethical codes for their own ends and means since man has been a somewhat moral and ethical being since long, long before religions were ever invented.

Objective ethics is kind of a sham. There's plenty of reasons why crimes can happen and be well justified. Beyond that you need to specify what you mean by removing the super natural elements. Removing the character of God or changing him to be a human both have dire consequences on the narrative so unless what you're trying to say is "is there value for the Bible if you cherry pick currently valid norms?" The answer would be yes.