Smart kids.
As for religious symbols imagine for a moment that believers walk around with small electric chairs around their necks on a chain. That's for the Jesus of a later timeframe.
Then we could also have the injection gurney on that chain, or just a hangman's noose. The faithful will cry and swear that you are mocking their Jesus.
Yes, I am mocking. The complex and drawn out version Of Jesus and his crucifixion would have been a simple case of stoning to death if they had of followed Jewish law.

Yes i love your kids too very intelligent - Mine were never engaged in any talk about religion it just never came up - it wasnt a strategy not to mention it they just never got into it it wasnt conscious - but they are now 49 and 50 and its still meaningless in their lives.

Your daughter nailed it. The gospels, at least, we're written down 30 to 160 uears (to the best of my knowledge) after the alleged crucifixion. So, it was word of mouth until then. There are also more elaborate miracles written in as time goes by.

awesome my "boys" are both none believers at 35 and 33 and I would never force my beliefs on them and didn't. I just told them my beliefs and why I felt that way.

I've always said that the most heinous atrocities have been committed in the name of one religion or another....and the fact that instead of recoiling from the horror of it all (burning people at the stake, watching lions rip christians apart, etc etc) people showed up and cheered and had themselves a great old time. I suspect the human species is not nearly as evolved as we like to think we are.

As far as changes. I read an article about some Bible's translated by monks. Three survived and each was different from the next. They once portrayed the serpent that gave Eve the fruit (not an apple) as the Naga (half serpent, half woman) up until about the 15th century. You can see this on the painting in the Sistine chapel roof.

Well, the Catholics use that symbol to represent the suffering that he endured to free them from original sin. The weird part is them eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Jesus is a zombie and apparently his followers want to be also.

Actually an X was used and not a cross. The X design delivered more pain for a longer time period. And Christianity is the one religion that practices cannabalism in that they eat the body of christ and drink his blood. Just let this one sacred moment sink in. Eating your god is show of faith