Second, I wish folks would remember that the Bible was constructed by a bunch of old Catholic guys. It was constructed to carefully deconstruct female power and human empowerment. The point of the Bible as we know it was to interpret on behalf of the priests’ supremacy and power. The old Catholic priests concerned with constructing the Bible discarded any gospel written by a woman. Some of those narrations were lost to us forever and some were discovered centuries later.
The Bible was NOT handed down by God. The ten commandments were handed down by God and certainly the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer and the Beatitudes were authored by Jesus Christ* – but the rest of it is a random selection of stories much like Aesop’s Fables.
If you believe in something, better not to say “The Bible says…”, better to say “This is what I most fervently believe.” Try to be realistic and realize that your perspective is only your own. You cannot define reality just by saying “The Bible says…” otherwise, all you are really doing is agreeing with a bunch of old Jewish and Catholic guys, who basically wanted to rule the world.
*I’m sure there are other works authored by Jesus Christ.