Does Jesus Mythicism give atheism a bad name?

[paulpablo]

I am not a mythicist; a lot of atheists are, of course.  As very few scholars are Jesus mythicists, does that POV give atheism a bad name?  Are we no different than the creationists who can point to a tiny handful of scholars who support our position?

The stories of Jesus make me think he was a real cult leader.  

His stories are more similar to Charles Manson, David Koresh, Reverend Jim Jones and so on than they are similar to stories of Zeus, Shiva or Hercules.

There was nothing really supernatural in the stories of Jesus that other cult leaders haven't managed to persuade followers they did.  He's healing the sick, coming back to life, turning water into wine, pretty standard stuff for a cult leader.  It's nothing like killing fire breathing multiple headed creatures, flying through the air and growing a lions head or whatever.
There's more of a cult leader feel to the stories of Jesus in that he was going around talking people into following him, leaving their homes and families.  Other mythical figures didn't do much talking to my recollection, guys like Zeus or Hercules just kicked the shit out of everything and everybody around them presumably knew they were great, I don't think there's much talk of these guys caring what mortals thought of them at any point.

Of course I'm no history expert and I'm not emotionally attached to Jesus being real or a myth.  Just looking at comparisons between myths, cult leaders and Jesus I notice much more of a similarity between the cult leaders and Jesus rather than mythical characters and Jesus, although it also seems likely that a lot of stories surrounding Jesus are just total myths, but that's the case with a lot of successful cult leaders, even pop stars and celebrities too.

I don't think having ideas and criticisms about something will give atheism a bad name on the grand scale of things. As long as atheists don't start detonating bombs and shooting large groups of people at train stations or rock concerts for believing Jesus was a real person. I can understand the logic behind why people might think Jesus was a total myth, they just look at the lack of evidence and dismiss his existence based on a that. As I say, I think he was real just because he sounds so much like a cult leader in the accounts that there are of him, he doesn't sound like a three headed, fire breathing, not giving a shit, pulverizing everything kind of mythical character.