Bible Babel Out-takes and the Writing Process

Of these sentences, which do you think is better?

1) “The Bible is a singular document of inestimable influence; but all evidence to the contrary, it can be really, really hard to understand.”

2) “The Bible is a singular document of inestimable influence, but despite all evidence to the contrary, it can be really hard to understand.”

Oh, and feel free to weigh in on how many “really”s should be included!

This sentence, in some form or another, will appear in the first paragraph of Bible Babel’s chapter 1. FYI, one of my goals for Bible Babel is that it be a light, swift read, humming along even while it introduces and engages serious and heady info.

Here’s the greater context (Ch.1’s first full parag):

Year after year, the Bible tops best-seller lists. Polls show it is the runaway favorite book for Americans of all kinds, and it is considered holy by a full 84% of the U.S. population.[1] It comes in every imaginable form. Leather-bound and embossed, in raggedy paperback, pink poofy cover, audio, multimedia, or clutched in the perfectly manicured fingers of Paris Hilton en route to jail. People swear on it in courtrooms. Families record births, marriages, divorces, and deaths in its pages. Soldiers take it into battle, and peaceniks wave it in demonstrations of opposition. [Insert sentence here.] For one thing, it isn’t just one thing.

 

Thoughts?