Looks like an interesting discussion, but really and truly, no one really debates the existence of Jesus (God is obviously a different matter). His existence is well attested, through a number of excellent first century documents. Obviously, alot of debate has gone into this issue, too much to put on an internet board. So I'm not going to try to "prove" anything, if you're really interested then these might be some interesting leads.
The two best-attested books in the NT are 1 Corinthians & Galatians (I'm not going to get into the "whys", do some research). We know that 1 Corinthians was written around 50 AD (about 15 years after, Jesus' crucifixion); in part, due to a later document, 1 Clement. In 1 Corinthians, Paul lays out the "gospel", which includes Jesus death & resurrection. He also mentions that he received this from other witnesses who saw Jesus. We know from Galatians that those people were Jews in and around Jerusalem before 35 AD.
So, we know that there were Jews in Judea who believed that Jesus had lived, had died, and had resurrected no more than 5 years after his death. I feel that this is pretty strong evidence for his existence at least. No one makes up a myth with events 5 years in the past; you have to put things far enough into the mythical past to where they cannot be disproven.
Evan
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