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[quote=Anonymous]So who denies his existence?

This is called mythicism, and it is held by:
	•	Richard Carrier (PhD, controversial figure, strongly criticized)
	•	Robert Price (former Baptist minister, fringe scholar)
	•	A few online writers with no academic credentials

Even many atheist scholars strongly reject mythicism.
Bart Ehrman famously said mythicists:

“represent a small but vociferous group who are almost entirely untrained in historical method.”

Mythicism is considered by mainstream academics to be similar to:
	•	Shakespeare-wasn’t-real theories
	•	Ancient aliens explanations
	•	Flat-earth–type fringe arguments (not identical, but similar in methodology)

Why do virtually no historians deny Jesus existed?

Because from a purely historical standpoint:
	•	Paul’s letters, written within ~20 years of Jesus’ death, reference meeting Jesus’s brother James.
→ This is extremely difficult to explain if Jesus didn’t exist.
	•	Early Christian, Jewish, and Roman sources treat Jesus as a real executed man.
	•	The movement behaves like one that began around a charismatic teacher, not a fictional literary creation.

Historians will debate what Jesus said, who he claimed to be, and how stories about him developed—but not whether he lived.[/quote]

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