What is Your Approach?

[Locke]

I thank you for the answer Locke, it's appreciated. And if faith works for you, I wish you well.

But consider how I might view the bible, not believing there's a god to inspire it. I'd expect there to be historical references, as a product of it's time, I'd expect practicality in terms of it being the result of human minds. The same arguments are made of other religious texts too.

How can I take the bible to be an inspired text with having a prior belief in god.

The prophecies in the Old Testament would be something to consider. Every one of them came true, with the exception of Judgement Day, which is yet to take place.
You're exactly right - practicality is expected if it was written by human minds. But contrary to this expectation, there are many things that defy human practicality in favor of more advanced reasoning.
For example, places where human writers put events down as they knew them, they referred to their surroundings in terms they understood (i.e. referring to the earth as flat), while places where they quote messages from angels, the angels reveal things they were clearly unaware of (i.e. in the book of Daniel the angel refers to earth as a sphere).

As opposed to other religious texts, key characters in the Bible are very realistic - they make grave mistakes and fall short of being perfect. In fact many of them seem to be worse than the average person, at least by human standards. Why not make exemplary models to follow like other religious texts do? Because that wouldn't be the truth.
Other religious texts, upon closer examination, turn out to be riddles with contradictions on fundamental principles, while the Bible, despite the surface criticism it receives, proves itself to be solid the more I examine it.

Without having a prior belief in God? I'd say you have a headstart, since you've probably been stuffed with less false teaching than the average person from a religious upbringing. Regardless, at the end of the day you still have to put it to the test to see if what it says is true. While most religions laud blind obedience, the Bible labels scrutiny as noble character:

Acts 17:11,
"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."