Why believe the bible?

[robvalue]

The thing is, "divinely inspired" or not, it's either perfect or it isn't. And if it isn't, every bit of it needs to pass scrutiny on its own merits.

Clearly it isn't perfect, far from it. Trying to argue that it is requires ignoring not only the internal problems but reality itself.

In a broad sense, I can agree. In fact, I can't recall any verse within the Bible that asserts that the Bible is literally perfect. So we can deduce that a doctrine that insists such a thing is indeed a man made doctrine, and not a God doctrine.

This does not, however, lead me to the conclusion that God doesn't use the Bible to speak to me.

Sure. I don't know why God would choose such an unreliable and ambiguous method though. It would indicate to me that he either wishes for his message to be unclear, or else this is somehow the best he can do. Neither seem to make a lot of sense to me.