But Arthur Conan Doyle wasn't and he wrote about things he saw going on in his world, just like many modern authors. If I would have named Millie Jones or any other of the millions you mentioned you would have had no idea what I was talking about. Sherlock Holmes you recognized.
Years ago I went through a program (12-14 weeks, I can’t remember exactly) called ‘The Truth Project’.
In it, they used a quote from Sherlock Holmes to try to convince any skeptics of the fact that Jesus was a real live human being on this planet.
It’s typically bad form to use fictional people / things to back up facts.
And, if someone doesn’t know who Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is in this day and time on Free Republic, I doubt they’ll know who Sherlock Holmes is as well.
Heck, there’s British folk who think King Arthur was real.