Theories about Jesus?

[smax]

Although I have chosen to create this thread in the Christian section, the question I am posing is primarily directed toward non-Christians. Christians have an obligation to believe that Jesus was either god himself or god's son.

For anyone else, that claim is probably absurd. With that, I'd like to get some theories about who Jesus was exactly.

As I see it, there are two basic possibilties:

1. He very well could have been a real person who created a new religious movement. This may or may not have been his intent. Perhaps he was merely a man who tired of the Jewish religion, and felt compelled to introduce some new ideas about heaven, hell, and salvation.

2. He may not have existed at all. There certainly isn't any compelling evidence to support a real historical figure matching the description of the character of Jesus Christ. If he didn't exist, which is a very real possibility, how did such a character come to be invented?

As I said, these are the two basic ideas, but I'm introducing this subject to further explore these ideas or introduce other possibiltiies.

Thoughts?