If we had to guess, it’s pretty safe to say he was probably a charismatic Jewish preacher living in first century Palestine who was executed by the authorities for unauthorized political activity. Any deviations from this basic narrative might have been difficult to pull off since there were probably people around who had heard of him, or maybe even met him.

But the rest of the story is pure religious propaganda, not to be accepted on faith, even if it was true. The first non-scriptural reference to him was written by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus who was born after Jesus died, and who had numerous axes to grind of his own. Even his brief mention is believed by scholars to be a forgery, added by Christian churchmen desperate to “discover” non-scriptural evidence of their savior that would corroborate the gospels.

What does survive of Jesus is his philosophy, that all men,(and women!) are equal in the eyes of god; that wealth, race, nation, social status, family connections mean nothing to the value of the human soul. This was a revolutionary intellectual accomplishment, and it is no surprise it took the world by storm. This has become so commonly accepted today that it is difficult for us to realize what a truly profound and sublime triumph it was, an idea that dwarfs even the sophisticated Greek and Roman views of reality of his age.

For this he deserves our honor and respect, and we are right to celebrate his birthday. I honor him, but I never believed any of that son of god crap. God is a myth. Jesus left us a very real gift.