I read you because I like your contrarian POV. I am not convinced that the United States is dead yet, however. Russia is, one way or another: https://socialeurope.eu/putins-war-will-destroy-russia

I think you are mixing facts, which are verified (and verifiable) beliefs, and the much larger intellectual matrix of beliefs that make up what we think we know. Furthermore, religious beliefs are in a special category because they are de facto unverifiable.

Opposing reason and faith is a category mistake. Most of what we think we know we actually believe. No one can personally verify every fact they've been taught or that they accept to be true.

That said, whether Jesus of Nazareth existed or not is a historical question, not a religious one. Whether he is all that is claimed for him is indeed theological, but one thing Christian theologians have finally agreed upon is that Jesus is/was as human as you or me.

Which brings us back to the question of his existence as a human, a man, a Jew. There is other evidence you do not mention, but Paul Zanki's comment below gets to the heart of the matter of what is historical or not. By the way, ancient authors were very attached to eyewitness testimony...

I too am 69, and don't feel like more than mid-30s. And inside me there I still a young guy who wants to take on the world. After a good nap. Thanks for a fun read.

Thank you so much for this. Hope is different from optimism, and we need more of the former than the latter.

And yet that proves my point: the brain and the mind (self-consciousness) are not the same thing.