Why believe the bible?

[robvalue]

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.

To clarify this further:

God is, I'm told, alive and well right now. If he wanted to talk to you, or me, he could presumably do so directly and without risk of misunderstanding, on a personal level. Instead, he chooses to dictate a general message to everyone at a certain point, for everyone to get out of what they will. He leaves it to be mistranslated and filled with forgeries over time, while standing in the background remaining silent.

Why would God choose this method, if not to risk confusion, or to test us? From my point of view, the bible looks like any other religious text and I'd have no idea how I'm meant to pick it out from the "fake" ones. I then find nothing meaningful in any of them, anyhow. God knows this, yet refuses to update this method in any way. If it's a test, it's a really stupid and pointless one I want no part of.