[lightmyst]

I think the bible and a lot of other such religious books are "comfort books". You don't really understand every single word or passage and you have your own interpretation of most of the book which might not have been originally intended by whoever the authors were. But it provides peace and comfort and that's good enough for most people.

[wikfwikf]

You are describing people mumbling through long and repetitive narratives about the history of the Jewish people without understanding or taking much in, because they believe it makes them closer to God, or simply reading the parts which feature well-known 'Bible stories' while ignoring most of the rest, thinking that they are reading 'The Bible'.

This does not invalidate what the GP said: [paraphrasing] that the Bible is difficult to understand and mostly of questionable value to a modern reader.