I normally find myself in agreement with you. Here I'm going to challenge your line of reasoning. All we need to do is look at the way the Bible for example is interpreted by hacks to say pretty much anything they want it to say, to bludgeon others with it, to justify wrong-doings they are guilty of, to sanction oppression, and even the death of others.
The reason that happens is because much of the biblical text was not written to 'instruct', but rather to confound. So as to inspire the reader to contemplate and humble oneself before an all powerful, all knowing, and therefor inexplicable God. This leaves it open to interpretation, which can then be abused by those who want to presume themselves to be God's interpreters.
@Rival does have a point. When it comes to understanding the deeper truths of a spiritual lineage, or even just depths of Wisdom herself, there is a massive difference between some dude who read some quote from the Buddha, or from the Tao De Ching on some web forum, and someone who has spent their lives uncovering the riches and treasures of sacred knowledge through years of personal practice, and research.
I am not arguing that there is no difference in depth of understanding religiosity. I am arguing that the difference remains with the individual. Our understanding and relationship with the great mysterious possibility that we call "God" is something that only we can determine, for ourselves. Even when we allow others to dictate this determination to us, we are still choosing to allow them to do that.
And we are still responsible for who that choice causes us to become in the world.
We humans crave control. And there will never be a shortage of humans wanting to use the mask of "prophesy" or "divination" or "holy righteousness" some other form of religious authoritarian nonsense to try and control everyone around them (to their own advantage). But we all have free will, and a mind of our own that we can use to push them away, and reject their desire to control us. But that means we will have to do some theological thinking for ourselves. And we will have to try out a spiritual practice with sincerity, but also skepticism, if we want to determine it's validity
for us. The cults rely on our being lazy, and willfully ignorant. And they try to keep their adherent that way by endlessly preaching "belief" in their phony authority instead of actual faith in a God of our own understanding.
Hack versus Experts. Specialists matter. There is massive difference between the Dalai Lama, and Fred Phelps. Pearls and swine.
This is a false characterization based on the idea that we can accumulate knowledge of God. Which we cannot. The true metric is honesty, not knowledge. Something many religions are sorely lacking. There are no hacks or experts when it comes to "God". Only when it comes to religion. Something the religious among us need to always keep in mind.
I think that's the real point here. Heck, I'd be more than in favor of putting a warning label on every Bible about what can happen when novices think they understand what they are reading!
The Bible presents no threat to anyone. It's not the problem. The readers are. The bible is no different than any other tool. If we use it properly, it can be very useful. If we use it as a weapon, it can be very dangerous. We decide which we will be for us. Not it. And the same is true of religion in general. It can be our servant, or it can be our master. But either way, it's not God, it's a human device, so we need to beware.
