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All the weight of the evidence is to the contrary--far from living comfortably, Christ's followers were persecuted, alienated, executed. Most were hard workers--and worked at their occupations even while they evangelized.

Indeed. The extraordinary parallels between Buddhism and Christianity continue, it would seem.

One of the most compelling arguments, in fact, for the authenticity and veracity of the Gospels is to read them without bias.As is the case with any other sacred text.

No one who reads the narrative of the man born blind, for instance, can deny that it has an authentic ring.

That would depend entirely on what the subject is.

If it were fiction it would mean that psychological realism had been invented by the Gospel writers long before the nineteenth century. Yet nowhere in the ancient world was fictional realism ever practiced.

I'm sorry, but that is clearly overlaying an ancient text with a modern concept that at the time of their writing didn't exist. One could say the exact same thing about numerous other ancient stories of the either the fantastic or semi-fantastic.

There can only be one explanation for the realism--the Gospels are truthful narrations which simply report what happened.

False dilemma: not only could there be other explanations as to the nature of the texts in question, but one must first accept the contention that they actually do exhibit some higher degree of realism, and that that degree of realism is somehow unique (or even there at all).

"I'm sorry, but that is clearly overlaying an ancient text with a modern concept that at the time of their writing didn't exist. One could say the exact same thing about numerous other ancient stories of the either the fantastic or semi-fantastic."

You completely miss my meaning. I am not extrapolating from the present to the past. I am saying the modern concept at the time of their writing didn't exist--just as you say. Yet the writing is realistic. The psychology of the situation is dead-on. No such texts or anything similar appear in fiction until the nineteenth century. Only journalistic veracity can account for it.

Here, read it yourself:
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The neighbors therefore, and those who saw that he was blind before, said, "Isn’t this he who sat and begged?" Others were saying, "It is he." Still others were saying, "He looks like him."

He said, "I am he."

They therefore were asking him, "How were your eyes opened?"

He answered, "A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight."

Then they asked him, "Where is he?"

He said, "I don’t know."

They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees. It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight.

He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see."

Some therefore of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath."

Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?"
There was division among them.

Therefore they asked the blind man again, "What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?"

He said, "He is a prophet."

The Jews therefore did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?"

His parents answered them, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself."

His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

Therefore his parents said, "He is of age. Ask him."

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It has the ring of truth. The pharisees demanding answers, the blind man saying, "All I know is he told me to put mud on my eyes and wash and I did and now I can see." The pharisees getting increasingly annoyed, starting to call him names, finally calling in the parents who don't want to get in trouble and get a little surly in the bargain.