My fellow atheists tend to lose all interest in Jesus as soon as they stop believing in his supernatural abilities. If Jesus isn't actually a heavenly being, and was just some dude, then what is there to be interested in right? I have always felt a little unique in that my interest in Jesus absolutely exploded the moment I realized that he was in fact, just a normal guy. If you think he accomplished a lot as an omnipresent super-being, imagine how impressive his feats look when you believe that he wasn't cosmic at all. One normal man started the biggest religious movement in the history of the planet Earth, and that has always fascinated me.
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth is a book I've been waiting for since I first snapped out of religion. It's a book, chronicling Jesus, but not as a messiah, just a recount of his existence from a purely historical standpoint. No fables, just what we know as fact from historical documentation. What you find is that the spark and subsequent spread of Christianity was monumentally out of Jesus's hands. Church politics decades after his crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem are the key factors in the modern popularity of Christianity, not Jesus performing physical impossibilities.
I can't recommend this book enough, now, while it didn't change any of my opinions about Jesus, (I figured the fraud part out a long time ago), I did get a very detailed look into just how this religion spread, and how much it has been deliberately altered and transformed to fit the specific tastes of different cultures. I think the most shocking knowledge I take with me from Zealot is just how violent Jesus was. The murder, racism and revolutionary zeal is a very stark contrast to the love me more than your own family guy we hear about today. This book is wonderful, and I wanted to share it with anyone who appreciates history.
