I'd be careful what kind of assumptions you make,
Kensei. You can tell I certainly don't believe it proper simply to take the bible literally, nor do I believe that followers of the bible don't have the right to critically evaluate it and what it means for them today. I certainly don't believe that a writing being "inspired" and "commanded by God" are synonymous. Faith communities - whether they're Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or anything else - are ultimately the ones who decide what is and is not "inspired." It is because of this process that a book of what used to be bar songs is now part of Jewish and Christian scripture: not because God commanded anyone to write them (I may be mistaken, but I've never heard of God being characterized as a heavy drinker
), but because someone in the Jewish faith community looked at the songs and realized that they could be interpreted to mean something about his peoples' relationship with God, and his community ultimately accepted that viewpoint.
That said, I think it's very important to not be hasty regarding how we view the bible or the people who wrote the books in it. The authors of the books of the new testament were in no position to be writing for power. In fact, for a significant number of them, being associated with the early Christian movement was not only not a source of power, but a source of potential danger to their life. When it comes to power, they didn't see much of it. In fact, Paul gave up a fair amount of power in order to join the early Christian movement.
This is not to say that there have not been and are not people who manipulate scriptures of any sort for their own gain, but let's not confuse the authors with people of a later time.
The bible - along with most other scriptures - has a lot of good things to say about life, provided one reads it with an eye for context and relevance, and remembers that its position as scripture does not mean it is the be-all and end-all of spiritual wisdom.
Indeed, while the western view of scripture tends to be of a singular collection of documents, set in stone, the eastern view of scripture is much more fluid.