Did Jesus exist?

[robvalue]

Right. If we just believe any testimony is likely to be true at points where it appears to be embarrassing, without further evidence, we're in a very strange position.

I could go ahead and write some stuff now which appears to embarrass me. Will it be true in 2000 years, if little else from the era survives for comparison?

To me, we've got far more reasons to think these people made things up and weren't particularly interested in historical accuracy. But this is just my opinion. We are only dealing in probabilities.