While trying to get to the bottom of this stuff, I came across Gnostic Christianity. From what I've read, it's possible that early Christianity viewed Christ as a metaphor, or perhaps as a mythology that you could perhaps relate to, without actually identifying with the literal belief that Christ was real.
Because when you start to believe that Christ was real, you owe it to yourself to learn about the pagan beliefs/stories that predate Christianity, which JUST HAPPEN TO BE VERY SIMILAR to Christianity, and give you a bigger picture of this belief that has dominated for two thousand years. All the stories of Christ, that many think are exclusive to Christianity, inconveniently happen to be the stories of other Gods from that era and before.
I suppose the easiest solution to this conflict would be, Satan went back in time and created fairy tales that would end up being almost identical to the stories in the New Testament, in order to throw us off the path, and perhaps screw us out of eternal life. That Satan is a real clever sort.
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