Read it, studied it, read it some more.

Yes, three different versions, Kjv and Niv, twice...plus Oxford annotated.

Glad I did, it made the flaws evident, and I'd been raised in a strict holiness cult, erm, church.

I find that Genesis, from the beginning up to the beginning of Adam and Eve, that seems to paraphrase something like the Big Bang (I'm not a total believer in the Big Bang) and the evolution of life on Earth, is interesting. It seems that many peoples have stories of their origins - and I find it all interesting. In Hawai'I, it's the Kumulipo - that is much more detailed than Genesis - and, interestingly, has the sequence of appearance of life-forms very well documented.

I'm happy to see that the majority here have actually read the bible, or at least parts of it. You can't debate effectively if you can't argue both sides.

I sat down once to read it. I made it as far as the Tower of Babel and decided that if there really is a god and he's that shallow I don't want anything to do with him. Even in his own book He fails miserably to live up to my expectations.

Further readings have been for the purpose of confirming my belief that its all bullsh*t. My favorite passage is Deut 13 wherein "god" instructs the Jews that if someone comes around answering to a vague description of Jesus then they should stone him to death because he's a fraud.

I know enough of it to be well enough informed, but I don't think I could read the thing within a short period of time without being bored and disgusted. Learned its contents over time, and I'll look up parts when I feel I need to in order to be informed better on certain parts. Hugo and Jakes bible study series at least made it a little entertaining. The brick bible also makes it's an entertaining read [thebricktestament.com]

I feel one day I'll just sit down with some of these major holy books and just read through them all when I have time off, just to say I did. That way I'll be even better equipped against dummies that wanna misquote scripture for their own gains and defense.

You don't have to read it.