I wasn't denigrating it. It struck me as an extended instruction manual for the soul, in the mode of an instruction manual for an appliance. There is an air of dissociation about it, as though it was not written by a human.

I'm not exactly what you might call a religious man, though I was raised and trained to be a minister till I was 19. I think all religion has an element of unprovability, which while not strictly fiction, is not demonstrable fact that can be integrated seamlessly into our personal experiences without some interpretation. The fact that it does contain obvious wisdom should make it more deserving of scrutiny to be sure that it is in line with a solid, functional understanding of morality.