Worrying about the facticity of the story of Jesus on the part of Christians makes no more sense than a Hindu trying to establish that Krishna actually picked up a mountain.
My background is that I grew up in the Episcopal church, spent most of my adult life in Wicca, then returned to the Episcopal church about, oh God, what, 15 years ago?
I was struck by how very pagan Christianity is. The first time I took the Eucharist I was like, "oh, I know what this is. This is a magical ritual!" I kept all this to myself until very recently, thinking I'd get a lot of flack. But the few times I've breathed it I've been surprised at how receptive people are. But I'm stacking the deck because I carefully consider who I talk to, and this is the Episcopal church, where we welcome LGBTQ+ and all that.
A contemporary church would have to be insane not to welcome gay people. After the way they have been treated by churches and they still want to go? That's faith. At my church there are any number of recovering gay Catholics. The liturgy is barely distinguishable from that of Catholicism. You can identify the ex Catholics because they kneel a lot.
I've strayed far from my point which is that all religion is a story, and our lives and built out of stories. Our stories make us human. By attending church I participate in the story of Jesus. The historical facts don't matter. It's a synthesis of Helenism and Judaism.
Final note: I have numerous reasons for my church attendance but the hope of heaven is not one of them. I can't escape the conclusion that if God is truly merciful as everyone says, then when we die it's lights out. We are not built for eternity. No matter what was there it would become Hell before it was half over, and when it was half over it wouldn't even be half over. Do you see the problem?