Garden of Eden was a setup...

[abaris]

Jesus was either a complete nut-job on par with the man claiming to be a poached egg when He claimed to be God in the flesh (not just a decent person, or a prophet as some claim) or He was and is who He claims to be. There are no shades of grey here. nut-job or the Son of God... period.

There are too many shades of gray to count between the two extremes presented. First, if Jesus existed at all. He's not in any way a proven historical figure like others from the same time period. He may have existed, he may be a collection of different person roaming the region at the time. Palestine at that time was full of Messiah figures.

Second, if we assume the existence of a historical Jesus, his words are brought to us by people writing at least 50 years after the fact. Most probably jotting down oral tales they collected. And we all know how such tales have a tendency to grow larger and larger with each person telling them.

Third, with the second extreme of him being the son of god, we're entering supernatural territorry, that can't be proven by any means. And what's more, all the miracles performed by Jesus are based on much older mythology from the region surrounding Palestine. Water into wine, Dyonisos, raising the dead, countless deities, being resurrected, again to many gods to count. The number three, are very old holy number. Goes for the days spent in the grave as well as for the trinity itself.

There are many other possibilities as well. As I said, too many shades of gray to count. I've only pointed out the most obvious ones.

There's absolutely no reason to believe the story unless you willingly submit yourself to it. And then it's called faith.