Did Jesus exist?

There are several threads currently active on the subject of Jesus existence.



Here is a summation of the major points, many others have been raised but these seem to be the ones that recur.



(HJ = Historical Jesus MJ = Mythical Jesus)







Pro HJ:



Deny Jesus, deny history. The same methods used to verify Jesus are used to verify most of history.





Academic Consensus: Most professors of ancient history agree on an HJ only a lunatic fringe believe in an MJ.



Christianity: You need Jesus to explain the existence of Christianity



Motivation: Insecure atheists need to attack Christianity by denying Jesus



Anti HJ:



John Frum: proves religions can develop without an actual human founder.



Gospel unreliability: we don't know who wrote the gospels or just when they were written, many of the stories are unbelievable.



Academic bias: most of the professors who advocate the HJ are Christian theologians and teach at bible colleges.



Motivation: Some people have rejected Christianity but still have a soft spot in their hearts for Jesus.

via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=271489&goto=newpost