I made the same journey during COVID, ultimately arriving at a similar place that the Nicene Creed was the first in a long line of obvious retconned political and human decisions. For what is worth, I also feel like it’s in the same vein as most of what Paul did, codifying and standardizing to the detriment of the source material and to the benefit of anyone willing to take charge.
I’m still genuinely shocked that anyone can read the Gospels and then not see the record-scratch pivot in tone for everything else afterwards. Well, shocked in as far as to then be disappointed at how easily a mess of addenda created something antithetical to a bunch of nebulous good vibes with no clear avenue to monetize it all.
Which, oddly enough, Buddhism does as well, but owns it as part of the process.
Yes, I understand the difference between communicable and noncommunicable disease.
The point is that media also rarely talk about these things, and people are not great at taking steps to mitigate their risk. Lots of things we can prevent, or not, still cause us lasting harm. But because those things are mundane, they are not clickbait-y enough to warrant regular coverage.