Here’s the shortest, most simple version of Abrahamic history for you…
The motive for the Bible to have been written, was first of all because Jews were dealing with an impossible, cruel, and very evil dragon named “Yahweh”. Yahweh is better understood as a demon associated with the eighth (8th) deadly sin of jealousy.* Recall, in Exodus 34:14 Yahweh named himself “Lord Jealous.” The dragon Yahweh was known to be an “elohim” (singular), and a junior member of a larger group of “Elohim” (plural). This group of Elohim was likely headed by an elohim named “El.” El was a Saturnian and Jupiterian Canaanite deity. Indigenous henotheistic religions of the day had many deities, but were typically centered around seven major deities that represented or were represented by — the seven visible planets — with the Saturnian or Jupiterian deity being the leader. The Yahweh entity was not a deity that had a respective planetary representation. And considering what has been written about Yahweh in The Old Testament, an obvious conclusion is that Yahweh certainly wasn’t the least bit angelic, but actually demonic. Speculating further about Yahweh being carried about by Jewish people via an “ark,” note the ark was mysteriously of Egyptian design. Thus, one may speculate that Yahweh’s origins were possibly from Egypt, and that he was maybe a fugitive Egyptian entity. Allegedly, smashed stone tablets were in the ark, and Yahweh was thought to sit atop the ark on the “mercy seat.” The mercy seat might be small for a dragon entity, so perhaps he levitated atop the mercy seat.
At some point, Yahweh apparently died. Anyone who thinks he’s not dead, well, where is he now? He appears to be completely gone, and in fact, for the most part it’s not at all likely that any dragons exist today at all whatsoever. Although there have been alleged “dragon sightings” depending upon which paranormal podcasts you listen to. So after Yahweh died, obviously Jews were free from the terror. But then they also needed a new leader. So, Jewish writers made up a character named Jesus and wrote stories about him aimed to compel the Jewish community to come together, and move forward to a new destiny together.
The Jesus fictions didn’t stick very well with the Jewish community, but and handful of non-Jews (gentiles), certainly thought the Jesus stories were quite interesting. Various Jesus cults were formed. About 300 years after the Jesus stories were woven, Roman emperor (and legitimate psychopath) Constantine (Flavius Constantinus) attempted to codify the big mess of Jewish gibberish in order to try and unite the entire Roman empire with it. The unification didn’t work very well, and the Roman empire collapsed about 150 years later, in 476 AD.
Meanwhile, the Jewish community had already given up on Jesus fictions and had been evolving their clan towards “rabbinical” leadership. The Romans doomed Jewish establishments Jerusalem and Masada in 70 AD and 73 AD, respectively. Jewish people were suddenly a people without a territory.
The question is: should anybody be “Christian”? Pretending Jesus was not a fictional character, then what/who was Jesus? There is no real historical, corroborative proof of a character at all like Jesus as having existed between 0 AD and 33 AD. If the Jewish stories were non-fiction, one may speculate “Jesus was an alien.” There are already books about this concept, and the TV show Ancient Aliens has probably covered the concept more than once. My opinion is that “alien” might not be the best descriptor. Perhaps “extra-dimensional entity” is better. Whether alien or extra-dimensional entity, to believe in this type of a Jesus is to go with your gut. That’s not a bad thing as long as you know that your gut can be wrong, and that your gut is not “proof.”
By contrast, the late supernormal Saint Padre Pio actually has historical and corroborative evidence substantiating his claims of supernormalism and miracles. While I don’t view “stigmata scars” on a person are somehow proof of an historical Jesus having existed, I would’t deny that Saint Padre Pio’s scars were real. People did investigate his scars. Padre Pio has corroboration on the matter. Nobody has to believe it if they don’t want to, or they “can’t,” or maybe it’s possible it was a giant hoax. But, Pio was way ahead of Jesus in that he actually has corroborative evidence. Even for the claims about his flying/levitation abilities. If you’re curious about that sort of thing, search for him online. “Fascinating” doesn’t even begin to describe the guy.
Regarding hoaxes, can you imagine anybody trying to pull off a hoax without establishing some kind of fake corroborative evidence first? A good magician at least respects your IQ by doing as much.
Obviously, supernormal and paranormal phenomena can be upsetting and disturbing. But it is important to be thick-skinned about these things. We like to think something is impossible and then one day we may see proof that the impossible is in fact possible. The majority of people are not born with supernormal and/or paranormal gifts or talents. And the majority of people aren’t ever confronted with anything supernormal and paranormal. But, I would say the times are changing. I digress.
My point is, whether or not something occurred or didn’t occur in the past that was supernormal or paranormal — it still needs to be substantiated with corroborative evidence and documentation for somebody to consider believing it, let alone taking it seriously enough to guide their entire life by it. “Jesus” just doesn’t have any corroborative evidence.
Let’s compare and contrast Jesus with Bigfoot/Sasquatch. With the Jesus Question, most people begin by doubting the miracles like immaculate conception, resurrection, ascension, etc. Once it becomes clear to a person that those things didn’t happen, the next phase is doubting whether a Jesus person even existed at all. Note that the Bigfoot Question works the opposite direction. Most people begin by doubting that Bigfoot exists at all, and then the more they study the situation it appears that Bigfeet DO exist. The next phase happens almost by accident, wherein a researcher finds so many reports about Bigfoot involving supernatural and paranormal phenomena, they are then compelled to believe that “magical/supernormal” Bigfeet very likely do exist.
To recap: with the Jesus Question you could say there are three choices: “magical/supernormal Jesus,” “natural/normal Jesus,” or “no Jesus at all.” And regarding the Bigfoot Question you could say there are three choices as well: “no Bigfoot at all,” “natural entity Bigfoot,” and “magical/supernormal Bigfoot.” I’m always amused to arrive at the conclusion that neither supernormal nor natural Jesus existed, but, paranormal Bigfoot does exist. I used to be pretty stunned by this. I’m still getting used to it. Your conclusions may be different than mine. But I’d be willing to bet $5 that given enough time going down these rabbit holes, you will find yourself on the same page as me.
Yes, I made up the 8th deadly sin just now and assigned it to jealousy. Have you ever met somebody who was incredibly jealous? It’s a horrible thing to see! Sure, some amount of jealousy is natural, but when it goes too far it can turn a person into a monster.