Sounds like people are just expressing their views, Erik, not trying to push their beliefs on you as you implied. You seem to take a pretty defensive posture regarding your own beliefs, even though no one is really trying to cut them down. What did you expect by starting a religous discussion thread?
Dwayner's right. Historically speaking, a man named Jesus preached in the area we now know as Israel about 2000 years ago.
Is the bible a work of fiction? Yep. It's also a book of stories, a book of mythology, a book of poetry, and a book of history. It's hundred's of books bound under one cover.