If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?

[Chas]

I'll say this, if Jesus had just been a man and not done those things that was written about Him, there would have never been a religion called Christianity. His followers would not have stayed in the fold to die a terrible death for a lie, human nature is a testament to this. People will say that cults have done this in the recent past and they have, but these people were not hounded day and night, beaten and placed in prison repeatedly, a great deal of the New Testament was written from prison. Most of them died terrible deaths. If the cults around today had to face the Roman Empire well lets just say they would not have organized and if they did would not have lasted long.

Google "cargo cults". Or "Mormonism". Or "Scientology".
Religions are real in the sense that they exist, but they demonstrably come from false roots.