Book excerpt: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3: 16). According to this verse, the bible is a divinely inspired moral guide. However, the critical analysis of Scripture that comprises the contents of this book clearly demonstrates that this claim is invalid for a number of reasons. For example, the multiple contradictions and absurdities contained in the bible confer an unreliability upon it that undermines its function as a guide for anything, let alone moral decision making. Furthermore, many of the ideas it promotes are actually spiritually harmful. And unless the misogyny, violence, intolerance, injustice and cruelty can be removed, then it is difficult to view the Scriptures as even remotely resembling an unassailable divine guide to ethical conduct. Moreover, the many errors that it contains, including those about the natural world, obviates the claim that the bible is divinely inspired. In the course of using the verses themselves in discussing such topics as biblical errancy, bible-based morality, the nature of the biblical god, the nature of a religion based on the bible, and the bible's stance on science, nature and truth, it will be shown that any belief that it is either divinely inspired or a trustworthy guide to right living is both misguided and delusional. In addition, the insights of such thinkers as Nietzsche, Feuerbach, Spinoza, Shakespeare, Euripides, Dostoyevsky, Camus, Sartre, Maugham, Augustine, Aquinas, Twain, Chaucer, Einstein, Freud, Ingersoll, Mencken, and others will be used to illuminate the true character of the bible, that it is a far more profane thansacred book.