With respect, if one places a Bible on a table and you look at...

With respect, if one places a Bible on a table and you look at it it tells you nothing. The next step is to pick that Bible up and read it and try to gain an understanding of what it means to you as an individual and and to you as a member of the human race.

If the Bible interpreted itself there would not be somewhere between 35,000 and 70,000 Christian sects. Even the Mormons, Jehovah Witness and Seventh Dat Adventists are kind of Christian and just look how well the Bible revealed itself to them.

You're not doing yourself any favours to think the Bible reveals itself just by reading it. It is a deeply complex spiritual work and has many layers of understanding.

As for 1Peter 1:20 Yes, lovely piece of insight. I was not saying that the Bible isn't rich in divine inspiration. It is a work of staggering wonder. Clearly it demonstrates a divine guidance and there are many great and powerful truths to enrich every life who reads it with an open mind and a dilated heart. But the point is people come to the Bible fully loaded with a belief system inherited from their family, their culture, or from some group they have been attracted to and every single one of these groupings have their own insight into what the Bible means.

There are principles in the Bible and we could all start with love thy neighbour and work into it from there. Get the big stuff right and then have a friendly debate over the more esoteric sections.

How well do you think Christians are going with these simple principles?