Originally Posted by ilnjscb

Esho Bar Yehosef existed, and his father was a handsome roman soldier, and his mother was a smart Jewish girl who didn't want to be stoned, and he was brought up to believe he was special, and 400 years after his death a very smart, ruthless man realized that controlling the church was a good way to consolidate his power. So he had some really smart guys, who didn't want to be tortured to death, write out the bible, and edit out that parts that weren't useful, from this 400 year old legend that seemed to really motivate the lower orders.

A few years later Rome fell for the first time in hundreds of years and went into a decline, but this guy got what he wanted, temporal power and 1500 years of positive posterity.

All religions have a general who really is the founder. Saladin, Constantine, Cyrus, Ahkenaten, whoever.