If you read it, Jesus doesn’t sound bad. I’d posit he’s probably the worlds first hippie. Acts is decent reading. The main issue is much of the book is filled with old law, several books in fact, that are there as governing rules for a society, not as a philosophy.

Religion can even work as such within small communities. 334million is not a small community, and people cherry pick what they like. Handmaids Tale cherry picked what was needed to fix a fertility crisis. Other communities cherry pick what they like for other means of making women subservient in a trad wife role. Others still go straight Jesus and are unrestricted, which, necessarily, ignores the entire Old Testament.

If the entirety was chosen, life would be very tedious and locked in contradiction.

Just the part about not being able to use furniture sat on by a woman actively experiencing her period, having to wait a week, or was it two?, for the furniture not to be unclean any more would break some people. It fascinates me that the biggest religious sticklers just ignore that one.

Oh. And no bacon. Or Christmas ham. A rule often ignored for obvious reasons.