Yeah, the bible is pretty barbaric. But it's also unrealistic. The difference between reading the bible and believing it to reading any fairy tale and believing it, is popularity and support. Believe everything you read in the bible, you're a good Christian, believe everything you read in Hansel and Gretel, you're very gullible and naive (or 4 years old).
Anyway, I can understand having a belief, it adds culture and honor to our lives. But since everybody's different, I can't understand why anyone would want to follow an organized religion. As far as I'm concerned, believe what you want to believe, live how you want to live, and don't let others stand in your way. If you believe the works of the Holy Bible, then study it on your own, the story doesn't change any if it's read by a reverend. Life is too short to be bothered and run a compromisable life based on the orders of others. Any power hungry individual can become a religious leader, just get money, and convince people that the way they are doing things is the wrong way. Good public speaking ability is also a plus, ask Hitler.
The thing that gets me most about religion is that it's abused so much today. Hypocracy is at it's prime causing this genuine practice to degenerate. And it's used so much in politics today, I can't stand it. As I've said, you can believe what you want to believe, and you can follow principles, but don't let 'faith' get in the way of your reason, or your judgment when you have fact to back it up. Good advice for the president. A man who bases so much of his decisions on 'instinct'. Iraq was 'instinct', if that does anything for you.
But when it comes to pointing fingers to who's full of shit, don't base it upon popularity, if the man who sold Jack his beans was God, then Jack's quest up the beanstalk would be a book in the bible (the book of "Jack") and would be studied as a truth throughout civilization, though it's just as credible as any other story (like Noah's Ark).
Anyway, don't take any of this to heart. I'm not trying to tell you how to run your life, but I hope you do consider what I say. Just do me a favor by asking yourself, "Who's being naive, Kay".
