But there is a serious side to that debate, one that is worth following up on. Jesus Christ is central to the Christian religion, and he is a respected and honored prophet to the Muslim faith. The Jews also recognize him as a great philosopher and teacher, although they assign no divine or spiritual role to him.

But what do we really know about Jesus? Other than what is in the Christian New Testament, we know absolutely nothing. All the documentary evidence we have of his life and work comes from the four Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, although we know from Biblical and linguistic scholarship that none of these accounts was written during his lifetime, or by anyone who knew him personally. In fact, we have absolutely no independent written account of Jesus’ life and work written by an associate or contemporary. At best, they are all hearsay evidence. We have little choice but to be skeptical of them, and view them as purely religious propaganda.

There are other Gospels, Apocrypha and other religious documents that deal with Jesus, but these have been rejected from the Canon by Christian clerics and ecclesiastical authorities, usually because they conflicted with Church doctrine, and if the Christians don’t vouch for their legitimacy, why should we?

Perhaps even more important is the total lack of any archaeological evidence or other independent records about the historical Jesus. The first historical documentation (other than religious texts) which we have is from the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus, who was born after Jesus died. Its not even clear he knew anyone who had known Jesus.

So what do we really know about Jesus? We know he was a charismatic religious leader who worked in first Century Roman Palestine and founded a great religion which conquered the Roman and Hellenistic world in just a few short centuries after his death. And that’s about it.

We can make some educated guesses about him, based on the testimony of the Gospels, because they were written not too long after his death and it is unlikely that they would have contained little that was completely contradicted by the memories of those who were his contemporaries, or who knew his contemporaries. Still, in no way does that imply they are to be taken literally, any more than the Hollywood movies of General George Armstrong Custer can be relied on for historical information about the man. It is pretty safe to say Jesus was a Jew, a charismatic preacher, quickly assembled many followers, and was probably executed by the Roman authorities or the religious leaders of his own community as a political troublemaker. Other than that, neither you, I or Reza Aslan can really add anything.

What we can all do, however, by study and scholarship into Jesus’ times, is come up with plausible historical and cultural scenarios that are consistent with what little we do know for sure about him. This might give us some insight into the man, but little else.

But we do know one thing about him, and the religion he founded, which does give us some insight into his teaching and philosophy. As a Jew, he may or may not have accepted all of this himself, but Christianity is about belief in the sacredness of the human individual. God does not care about your tribe or nation, race or gender, wealth or social standing in the community. We are all equal before the eyes of God. That idea alone, and that it survived, however diluted and bastardized and corrupted, makes Jesus the most important man that ever lived, and probably the most valuable. His contribution was remarkable for a god, even more remarkable if he was just a man.

We need not believe in his divinity to hold him in the highest respect and honor.