Why do atheists even bother about debating Jesus?

[Minimalist]

Philo was not present, however; he was at Alexandria,

Philo however had the advantage of being alive at the time.

If we're supposed to accept Josephus's history books as proof of Pilate's existence without archaeological backup we'll have to do the same for Jesus and John the Baptist.

Did "john" (who also appears in Josephus...briefly) and "jesus" mint their own coinage?

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog...p?vpar=932

I'm afraid that multiple references in written sources for someone - especially when those sources did not know each other - is about as good as it gets in ancient history. Josephus' reference to John is an aside to demonstrate the failings of Herod Antipas and, in the case of "jesus" is an interpolation by later xtian writers who were chagrined at not being able to find legitimate references to their godboy in one case and a simple bit of wishful thinking in the other.

BTW, the timing of Pilate's term is interesting. He began in 26 and lasted to 36. 26 just happens to be the year that Tiberius "retired" to Capri leaving the empire in the hands of Lucius Aelius Seianus (a/k/a Sejanus). Thus it is likely that Sejanus actually appointed Pilate to the post of prefect. The official governor of Syria, of which Judaea was part, was Lucius Aelius Lamia, a kinsman of Sejanus' (probably his uncle) however Lamia never went there. Things were quiet, he was an old man and various surrogates actually ran the province. When Sejanus fell in 31 he'd had 5 years to install his loyalists in various posts of which Judaea would have been one of the least significant. Lamia, in spite of his relation to Sejanus, was a confidant of Tiberius' and retained the nominal post of governor of Syria until his death in 33. At that time someone seems to have said we need to do something about Syria ( one of the most significant military postings in the empire ) and a man named Lucius Vitellius was carefully groomed. He was elected consul in 34 and at the completion of his year was then eligible for the post of governor. He would have arrived sometime in 35 and finally got around to replacing Sejanus' man, Pilate, with an officer of his own, Marcellus, who was presumably loyal to Vitellius and Tiberius in 36. Josephus claims that he broke up an armed mob of Samaritans and this got him in trouble but suppressing armed mobs was what a Roman magistrate was supposed to do. Whereas, being loyal to a disgraced pretender to the throne is not something that Vitellius would have overlooked.