Does Jesus Mythicism give atheism a bad name?

[Aractus]

As very few scholars are Jesus mythicists, does that POV give atheism a bad name?

Yes of course it does, because it displays a clear lack of critical thinking, as well as a lack of appreciation for proper evaluation of historical materials and events (i.e. the peer-review process, and evidence published by experts). Now I did note in another thread that "Expert Opinion" in health is considered to be blow the level of Case Studies (Level IV NHMRC), but if that's all you have then it is still evidence. And when it comes to history and its related disciplines, that's how evidence is evaluated - against expert opinion, scholarly thought, and of course published findings. Because this evidence is really weak, there is usually a large amount of disagreement about any one subject by the experts. So the fact that there are some Mythicits should not at all be unexpected, but the fact there are almost none who are qualified to be called experts (people who are involved in active research and who publish evidence) should clue us into the fact that the position is as weak as supporting something like YEC which also has a small number of "dubious" expert proponents.

Let's put this into another context: the MMR vaccine. There's a small number of experts who think (despite the lack of any published evidence since the 1998 Wakefield paper was retracted) that it can trigger Autism. It's nearly unthinkable to back this position, it is akin to denying the Holocaust or believing in a 6,000 year old Earth. But with that said; the MMR should still be open to criticism without risk of stigmatisation. If you look at the vaccination rates in Australia (or for that matter the USA or some European countries) it has the lowest of all the childhood vaccination rates, and IMHO the best way to fix that is to get rid of it altogether. It's not liked by parents - including those who vaccinate, why not get rid of the damn thing and administer it as two separate vaccines that healthcare consumers are happy with? Why is this not an option: it seems it has the same issue as Jesus Mythicism - sensible discussion around redesigning the distribution methods is tainted by stigmatisation due to the small and insignificant anti-vaccine movement.