Overstating the case for Athiesm.

[rsb]

The real lumberjack Paul would have to be "The Character" in the story with substantially the same history. As it would be, a possible "real" Paul Bunyan would not have had any history of the life told in the story but rather a completely different one. Thus he is not the "character" in the story. The story remains non-historical, just like Jeebus!

The existence of the historical guy would remain history or not or unknown, irregardless of any myths.

The possibility of a different life story is not only believable, but it would be completely unprecedented in human history for him not to have a different story even if he was a modern public figure. I would simply not believe it.

So I guess without knowing the details, I can't predict exactly how it would be different and have no evidence. That seems to both agree and disagree with your position, but I hope I actually am on the same page.

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Why the overselling?

I don't think it's so much 'over selling' as it is 'reacting' or responding to religion being so in everyone's face these days. It's in politics, it's trying to (continue to) shape our laws, ''Creationism'' is trying to compete in school classrooms against science, etc.

I think that it's more of a reaction, and it's a needed response otherwise, religion will steam roll into everyone's lives, and it has no place doing that.

If religion remained private, and kept to itself, I don't think anyone would have a problem. I don't. If someone wishes to practice a particular faith ...that's their right. But, don't push it into politics and government and the public educational system.

So, to me, it's a reaction to religious zealotry.

Well perhaps. I think it is a mistake to adopt the big lie, propaganda techniques, or irrational arguments just because religious people do (I am not saying anyone in this thread is doing that please dont slap me). Likewise if we identify arguments made by atheists that lack credible backing, maybe we should move them to theories and investigate further. Maybe there is a historical text that will be a bombshell for many theologies. I find it encouraging to note that geneticists at BYU are active in disproving the genetic origin of the native americans as told by Joe Smith, and Israeli archeologists are disproving their own history in the torah. Perhaps their commitment to morality and truth is winning over their commitment to their theology. One can only hope.