Clanad, //On that basis, naomi, a huge amount of ancient but secular writing must also be dismissed.//
Illogical. The content has most certainly not been dismissed – at least not by me - in fact, since I have a very different view of it all, I find it quite intriguing. However, your attribution of authorship has been questioned. It’s one thing to seriously consider the veracity of the content of any ancient document – which, if we’re to understand our past, I think we must do - but it’s quite another to claim positive identification of authorship where there can be none.
//You fail, I believe, to understand the science of ancient document study.//
From what you say, whether my understanding of ancient Hebrew equals that of your knowledgeable acquaintances is probably doubtful, but nevertheless, insofar as I am very well aware of the nuances of the written language, I fear you may be preaching to the converted. That aside, what you appear to be saying here is that these books were not originally written in the third person and therefore every flavour of the bible in use today is inaccurately translated. If that is indeed correct, I’m surprised nobody, apart from you and your friends, has noticed.