That's what I thought - so why do you suggest I am only repeating what others have said about the Bible?
It's not just you. As the scriptures themselves show, at any given time in history the vast majority of people believe what the religious leaders tell them. The scriptures also show that those leaders are quite off the mark when it comes to the things of God. For example, in Noah's day there was one and only one righteous man, that of course being Noah (Gen 6:8).
As for the rest of society, and mind you history shows it was a
very religious society, God says this,
Gen 6:5,
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
Every thought was evil. It didn't serve to improve society. Every thought all the time, went against the truth. That includes the clergy who were the ones who taught the people. Obviously they weren't teaching the scriptures. They looked reverent and holy on the outside, but the inside was death.
With few exceptions the scriptures tell of a history when no more than a few people at any given time believed God.
The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament, and look at what he said (inspired by God - 2 TIm 3:16),
2Tim 1:15,
This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
All turned away from the truth of Paul's gospel. Nothing has changed. Phygellus, Herogenes, and others mentioned elsewhere in the NT, were hight successful at subverting the true Word of God, all with plenty of help from the devil. That's where we stand today. The devil's main tools include religion and the church.
But fortunately for everyone, believer and non-believer alike, it only takes one to light up the darkness of the devil's world.
That is why I said most of what you say about the Bible comes, not from an honest and sincere in depth study of the book itself, but from what others have said about it. Heck, almost everybody "knows" what it says despite the fact it's one of the least read books. I'm not sure how that works, but it is the case.
Is it just because you don't have a more substantive response to my argument?
No, I can't say I have a more substantive response.