, 26 February 2010 (UTC) 

 ::::Skeptics believe that the first statements of doubt were expressed through satirical and allegorical works in the 18th century. 
 ::::As rephrased (endlessly) this is a recent inframural issue in de Verean studies, unless I am mistaken. It is therefore detail for the maintext and not the lead. Squirrilling it in there is inappropriate. The version yonks back was on this uncontroversive. (b) there is absolutely no support for 'extensive public attention' in any normal acceptance of that phrase (i.e. it is not a 'public' issue like WMDs or Michael Jackson's possible murder: it is a fringe rumour, with a lot of net hype, but negligible impact on broad public opinion) (c)'thousands' again, like the Declaration gambit,in the context of a Western public of some 500-700 million peoples is rather cute, but pathetic special pleading. The more this is revised, the worse it gets. All I see is a case for going back to the original second sentence.  16:20