Most of us all know that the Jesus Bloodline is totally barmy and taken seriously by a minority of extremist fanatics, but let's point out that the claim is based on taking the contents of the Bible seriously, as if everything in it was “historically factual” (a basic and common mistake). Let's also point out the actual usefulness of this modern absurdity by sharpening our tools of knowledge about the real facts about the Ancient World and its beliefs.

Let's just pull three names out of the hat relating to the story of Adam and Eve. George Noory has explicitly stated on Ancient Aliens that Adam and Eve really existed – and this is not so unusual since Kathryn Applegate appears to believe in it as well, and also William Lane Craig with conditions. However, the story of Adam and Eve as found in the Book of Genesis would not exist at all without the Sumerian myth of Enki and Ninhursag in the Garden of Dilmun – which is a reworking of it – made to fit-in with Jewish Theology. People have known this for a very long time. (Should it also be added that the myth does not date from the period it describes?)

If Solomon really was the son of David – assuming that both Solomon and David really existed – how can it be verified? The complexity of validating genealogies that are literally many thousand of years old is just impossible. It's unable to validate genealogies that are only a few centuries old.

The story of the Knights Templar discovering ancient treasures in the Temple of Solomon does not go beyond the 18th century and has been recently rebooted by Andrew Sinclair in 1990 in relation to the Rosslyn myths – and this has been repeated as if it were historical fact ad infinitum ever since. After the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 CE the Jews were forbidden to enter the city; Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina with a temple of Jupiter built either on the site, or close to, the Jerusalem Temple. According to the writer Flavius Josephus, when Titus entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem he found it was empty – there was no Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant is a favourite subject matter among mystery buffs. It is treated as if it were something special and spectacular but it completely failed to protect the Jews from the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE and it is likely that the Ark of the Covenant was never rebuilt.

The subject matter of Jesus Christ has been critically evaluated since the time of the German Protestant Theologians of the 19th century (their findings and discoveries have been largely suppressed since the 20th century by modern Christians). More recently the humanist George Albert Wells and the sceptics Richard Carrier and Robert McNair Price have attempted to provide an explanation for Christian origins. They have all miserably failed to come up with any viable solution.

One obvious fact remains clear – it's a big mistake to confuse Religious history with Secular History.