Interesting choice of words
when you wrote
Religious history is taught in private parochial schools and churches but it's always through the filter of the particular sect's beliefs. When the spotlight is placed on the entire history, so much of the mythology and evolution is exposed and I believe it becomes apparent that the vast majority is simply the machinations of man.
you seem to have allowed a gap or 3 in the phrase 'the vast majority' ... it's in those gaps which I personally admit the possibility of some kind of prophetic revelation of something (or Something) beyond the reach of science and intellect. The 'Bronze Age Priests' might have been backward scientifically and technologically, but I suspect they may have known, and understood, more about religiosity, and existence and creation. They could have had a far stronger and more visceral intuition about Infinity than we think we do, in our knowledgable intellectual arrogance.