Shit. What The Hell. Jesus Never Existed

[Mudhammam]

(Emphasis mine)

Ok, that is simply not true. Christianity comes along at a time in history when Hellenistic Mystery Cults were extremely common in the Roman Empire, and these cults had several things in common:

• They generally blended Hellenistic figures and principles with figures and principles from other cultures
  
• They tended to denote a shift from community religion to a more personal and individual salvation
  
• They tended to center around stories of struggling and/or dying-and-rising gods who originally represented the changing of the seasons in some capacity
  

Considering the religious climate of the time, there is no reason to believe that a Jewish-flavored Mystery Cult wouldn't have sprung up in a form much like the others.

Christianity was borne out of a strain of Hellenistic Judaism, no doubt, but I don't see much in common with any Roman or Greek mystery cults. In fact, the Christians were notoriously repulsed by paganism. As far as dying-and-rising gods, what connection does that have with your claim that the man Jesus was mythical?

Furthermore, there are ample reasons for one or more sects of Jews to invent a fictional messiah character, the foremost of which is that the line of David died out before producing the Messiah it was supposed to. Creating a heavenly Messiah that could be made in the celestial realms out of David's cosmic sperm was a perfect way to solve that problem because there did not have to be a historical story for the visions and scriptures of that story to be accepted.

Um. Okay. So in order to reinvent this dead Davidic line, "they" (the apostles?) create a Messiah who gets humiliated by death on a cross, though of course, being Jews themselves, they know it will be "a stumbling block" to their target audience.

Anyone with an inkling about Jewish expectations vis-à-vis the Messiah knows that he isn't supposed to come and be executed, so you'll have to pull more bullshit out of your ass (which is all your doing now) to explain that one.

Another fun fact...rewriting the gods into historical fictions with extant human characters was also extremely common during this period, hence the version of the gospel story that survives today.

Except that Jesus was "born under the law" (a Jew), of a "woman" (not a goddess), and was crucified and buried ... prior to the composition of the Gospels. That sure is odd language for a celestial being that is yet to be Euhemerized, which, by the way, implies that the Jesus cult is far older than the 1st century - and you are surely wanting evidence for such.

The bottom line is that, in the context of history, it is not that difficult to explain the rise of Christianity under the Christ Myth, even without resorting to conspiracy theories. Christianity is not unique among the religions of the time, and the historicity of Christ has virtually no impact on whether a Jewish Mystery Cult was likely to form. Plenty of the day's religions formed around extant god characters with no historicity.

Yes, you've proven that it's not difficult to explain the rise of Christianity under the Christ Myth, so long as nobody asks for evidence or reason to assent to your speculation, which is quite suspect on other grounds, namely its confusion in how even Hellenistic Jews, let alone those in Palestine, viewed the pagan myths. Christianity is, in fact, unique, though not in any elevated sense, but that's a topic for another time.