Yeah, I know it’s human nature that people will always seek the reassurance of being part of a group in preference to the isolation of thinking for themselves, and will believe the completeness of an absurd mythology rather than accept the gaps in current scientific knowledge.

I still don’t get it though.
If I was going to make some outrageous claim of cycling ability, I’d tell people I had cycled the length of the Grand Union Canal in 7 hours.
Go on, prove I haven’t.
I wouldn’t claim to have won last year’s Mountain Mayhem, when it’s so easy to check the results.

I just find it bizarre that someone went to so much trouble to hire all those actors and the set to make a “factual” film that is so obviously fiction.

well they were writing it 2000 + years ago so there understanding of the world was less than it is today and it was plausibel. imagine saying at the time we came from apes would that have seemed more believable at the time? everything had a common ancestor and you are 50% similar to a banana etc prima facie ludicrous yet true
if we created a religion now for example, we would not make claims we knew were verifiably false , nor did they at the time. Daft but not that daft.

I just find it bizarre that someone went to so much trouble to hire all those actors and the set to make a “factual” film that is so obviously fiction

Some debates in the USA are all about the spin. The whole thing is built upon people trying to out-do each other, spiralling out of control. So you end up with this kind of craziness.