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I'm more of a NewTestament guy myself. And I'm sure you are as well when it comes to certain OT passages. The point being is that you can have a particular view on the death penalty (or homosexuality or the position of women in society etc etc) and find justification for it somewhere between Genesis and Revelation.
I find that mortal opinion is often justified by reference to whatever biblical passages they feel support said opinion. I'm sure you'll have some to support yours.
The challenge being that no one really believes the bible? I likely can find NT passages that aren't to your liking as well.
Something that I found helped greatly with my walk in the beginning of my faith was to read the Bible as if it were a regular book.
Likely? It's a certainty.
You will believe that for which you find the evidence is acceptable. Or which bolster your already held convictions. But yes, of course you can deny certain passages as being factually accurate. Take them as metaphorical. Accept them as comments on social attitudes at the time. It's not one book written at one time by one person.
I don't think it's a good idea to pigeonhole people and then assume what will or will not resonate with them. Especially those you don't know.
I've been here for some time. Most 'members of the church' (are you using that as a catch all for Christians?) who post here will know my POV because everything I post is based on my POV. Whereas I doubt if you've read more than 4 or 5 of my posts on one topic so far. The point being is that you don't know enough about my views to assume that you can educate others on it.
Your profile,by your own doing,identifies you as an atheist.
That's my plan. Though it is more about "clearly wrong in one place" than "inconvenient".
Indeed it does.
I'm not sure that you understand what the term means. Unless you think that you pigeonhole yourself as a Christian?
Here is a thing to consider:
When I start looking through commentaries about some verse of scripture, I have the uncomfortable feeling that I’m doing what W.C. Fields claimed to be doing when he was found reading the bible. To be frank, there are verses that challenge everyone and we shouldn’t dismiss them because they make us uneasy. And yes, when I say everyone, that includes me.
Loopholes.
You can't, not unless you dismiss the whole bible. There are some atheists who like to play the "neater, neater" game by taking verses out of context, apparently assuming no Christian in the last two thousand years has read it and that, in the OT, no practitioner since Moses ever paid attention to it. You can study it and ask if it's applicable and see if there is a further meaning by context, but there will come to some that must stand on their own.
I see no logical, or theological reason why you can't reject parts of the bible that I'm sure you would consider completely unacceptable today whilst accepting those that are still valid today.
