Its all been provided Dave. The Lord gave us the "leg up" in a book called The Holy Bible. The "records" you refer too are contaminated and untrustworthy. If that's "anti-intellectual" so be it.
And the history of the faith, even if "contaminated" is not worthy of a look. You take the Bible and ignore everything else about what past Christians have had to say. Two millennia of Christians, some right, some wrong, have nothing to add to your benefit?
Yeah, that's anti-intellectual. It also leads many to follow the same stunted paths over and over, not realizing that the collective mind of Christendom has rejected these paths. And rejected them for cogent reasons and to forestall the development of further heresy.
SD