Good questions. But I just want to throw a speed-bump in front of your last point. I tend to more gravitate in the direction that the church(es) attempted to answer these questions. Whether the church(es) answered them correctly is another matter. However, in the final analysis it makes probably little difference because the myths* became the reality.

I feel, however, we can certain answer the question as to whether Jesus was relevant-- yes, and in spades. The fact that there are almost 2 billion Christians worldwide is the proof.

As for the first question, the answer from me is "I'm not sure". If I professed that somehow I really know who the "true Jesus" was, I should be considered to be as arrogant as one can get. How would I know? How could I know? I have some half-baked ideas as you have seen me post before, but "ideas" are not necessarily "facts".



*I use "myth" in the anthropological sense, which does not connote falsehood.

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"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein