Did Jesus exist?

[Angrboda]

I mean, really. How could Christianity take off without a central prophet figure? What stops someone from the time saying to his followers, "No man, you're full of shit," and going to where Jesus allegedly lived and preached and saying, "See!? No Jesus! You guys are crazy!" Without Jesus, the rise of Christianity is missing a big puzzle piece. What would you put in his place to explain it all?

Oh please. Legends and myths start from the flimsiest of beginnings. We have all sorts of examples of legendary characters who are based on no persons at all. Are you seriously arguing that a myth can't form unless there's some grain of truth to it? The people writing about Jesus were writing decades after the supposed historical events. As far as the common man was concerned, they could have happened in another century. There was plenty of time for an unchecked oral myth surrounding the Jesus character to have formed, and nobody would have been the wiser. It's not like they had CNN or a system of distributing news and fact checking sources.