AVATAR

In a virtual reality, our avatar doesn't run out of steam, ...  The avatar plays a role on our behalf.  It exists in a limited world with simple rules, and the storyline runs along an expected path.

That's what avatars do.  It's realistic in a limited sense.

Religion can be like that.  Limited, with 

• a list of rules for the game,
• a short list of answers for the questions,
• a simple explanation for the difficult parts,
• and players who are sure they understand it all.

Then there's real life.

Real life can leave you tired before lunch, disappointed at the end of the meeting, discouraged by not having been heard, depressed after a string of failures and insults and accusations, wounded, worn out, done at the end of the day. Or decade.

I can't send an avatar to live my life.  I have to face it myself, and religion doesn't help; not at all. Real life, real difficulties ...

Jesus wasn't an avatar either.  He faced the real things we face. It was life, and it left him exhausted, discouraged, ... there was no button to pause the game and no do-overs.  Like us, he labored through it; no simple answers, no easy explanations, and in the end, he died.

    There's more, of course, but it seems important to know the life he lived was like ours.

It's all real, as best I can tell.  
Not the religion part, though.