Christianity a scam?

[Fake Messiah]

Most scholars say Jesus existed.

Yeah but what does that really mean? Most scholars say, and is frequently featured in the backside of newspapers, that Robin Hood existed as well as King Arthur and even Hercules, but only as people that may have inspired the myth. It's not like there was a real person living in Sherwood Forrest who hang out with Little John and Friar Tuck.

Interestingly enough Otto Rank and J.G. von Hahn made a Mythic Hero Archetype containing 22 typical recurrent elements drawn from comparative studies of Indo-European and Semitic hero legends. Which are good distinctions between mythical heroes and real historical persons.

These 22 distinctive mythical hero-type features are:
1 His mother is a royal virgin.
2 His father is a king or a god .
3 His parents are often near relatives to each other.
4 The circumstances of his conception are unusual.
5 He is reputed to be the son of a god.
6 An attempt is made to kill him usually by the father .
7 He is spirited away.
8 He is reared in a far country by foster parents.
9 We are told nothing of his childhood.
10 On reaching manhood he returns to his future kingdom.
11 Before taking a throne or a wife, he battles and defeats a great adversary such as a king, giant, dragon or wild beast .
12 He marries a princess often related to his predecessor .
13 He is crowned, hailed, or becomes king.
14 He reigns for a time uneventfully i.e., without wars or disasters .
15 He prescribes laws.
16 He later loses favor with the gods or his subjects.
17 He is driven from the throne and city.
18 He meets with a mysterious death.
19 Often, he dies at the top of a hill.
20 His children, if any, do not succeed him.
21 His body is not buried.
22 Nonetheless, he has one or more holy sepulchers

So when they compared these to mythical figures this was the tally:

1.  Oedipus (21)
2.  Tie: Theseus and Moses (20)
3.  Tie:  Dionysus and King Arthur (19)
4.  3-Way Tie: Perseus, Romulus, and (Javanese hero-king) Watu Gunung  (18)
5.  Tie: Hercules and (Welsh hero of the Mabinogion)
6.  Bellerophon (the Greek hero who captured Pegasus and slew the Chimera) (16)
7.  Tie: Zeus and Jason (of the Argonauts) (15)
8.  Tie: Osiris and (demigod hero of the Shiluk tribe of the Upper Nile) Nyikang (14)
9.  Tie: (legendary founder of the Olympic Games) Pelops and Robin Hood (13)
10. Tie: (Greek god of healing) Asclepius and Joseph, son of Jacob (guy with a coat of many colors) (12)

Raglan noted a remarkable fact: no undoubtedly historical hero, not even Caesar Augustus, managed to score more than six points on the scale; though he allowed perhaps seven in the case of Alexander the Great.

Interestingly Raglan didn’t dare put Jesus of Nazareth to the test, but we could. Why not? Jesus easily makes the top 20. There are only two elements that do not fit: number 3 His parents are often near relatives to each other and number 12 He marries a princess

Although when it comes to number 3 the later Christian infancy gospel, The Protoevangelium of James explicitly says that both are descended from King David and indeed some Christian denominations believe in that.

And when it comes to marriage it could be said that he is married allegorically, to the Church – which was both portrayed as his bride and the "daughter" of his predecessor (the nation of Israel).