"The Fabulous Riverboat" series used historical names and facts.
So did Ivanhoe, as did the Camelot stories from Mallory.
Mark Twain did as well in his "Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Courts."
Is "The Red badge of Courage" not fiction because it takes place during a very real historical event?
Is it an attack on America?
Of course not.
Get over it.
The book is based on legends and stories that have been around for nearly two thousand years; the idea that Chrsit survived the crucifixion, married, and had children is not a new one.
You are obviously a well read man but your points are not well thought out. This evil book/movie isn't all a matter of intellect, it's a blasphemy against the God of 2 billion people in this world. It is not "fiction" when the life and times of Jesus Christ, the sinless man-God, are recounted in factual, historical context, but then revised to have Him living in sin. He was not Mark Twain you dufus, and this book is also a slam on the Catholic Church, which is the real agenda behind this trash.
I know about gnosticism and the other ridiculous legends about Jesus Christ and Mary Magdelene, so what? Until now these foolish legends have been just that, LEGENDS. But now the author attempts to resurrect the legend and assert it as fact by giving it a very loud and very effective global voice. Only the naive, the ignorant, and the faithless could honestly believe this story was written as "fictional entertainment", as the cowardly author has claimed. If slandering the 2nd Person of the Blessed Trinity, GOD to two billion people, is 'entertainment' to you, then it is YOU who should 'get over it'.
This book was not created expressly for knowledgable people or faithful Christians who could shrug it off as the garbage that it is, because these people, by-and-large, would not generally buy the book or see the blasphemous, sick movie. It was created largely as food for the ignorant and the gullible, and fuel for the Catholic haters. If you follow the story left in the wake of the book and movie, you will learn that many people actually believe what they are reading and seeing.
So you mention Mark Twain and others and you prove nothing. There is no book of 'fiction' that is written about the historical lives and times of actual people, using their actual names and factual events of a great portion of their lives and times, this is called HISTORY, or non-fiction. And when you pervert that history with falsifications and damnable lies it is called revisionist history, which is exactly what the author and movie producers want to show it as. It's an attack against the Christian faith and God Himself, (and it will be interesting to see how God will avenge His Holy Name). Even while you mention Samuel Clemens, there are millions of dumbed-down Americans all around you who have never heard of him, and whose intellect will never get beyond M.T.V. and American Idol........these people are the dimwits who are seeing the movie and believing it, exactly as the author and producers had hoped.