Why do atheists even bother about debating Jesus?

[Confused Ape]

But Tacticus was still writing after the event, and "Christos" or "Chrestos" is greek for "Messiah" and since quite a few people at the time were proclaiming themselves as messiahs it could have been anyone.

What I find interesting about Tacitus, though, is that he writes as if it's common knowledge that Christianity hadn't been in Rome for very long long. He wrote the Annals in 116 AD but that doesn't automatically mean he knew nothing about what was going on until he started researching stuff for his book.

The mischievous superstition believed in by the Christians was considered to have been something to do with a superstition which broke out again in Judea after someone had been executed. As Chrestus was Greek for Messiah it suggests that some weird cult started in Judea after a Messiah contender had been executed. Was the executed man's name Yeshua? It might have been seeing as the early Christians thought that's what his name was. The name would also explain why the executed man's background could have got mixed up with myths and legends about Yeishu ha-Notzri, a sorcerer whose body was supposed to have been hung up on the eve of Passover after he'd been stoned to death.

But the important issue here is that the legitimacy of christianity relies on the miracles that JC as the son of god was supposed to have performed.

Take them away and it's just another myth.

Of course all the stuff about JC being the son of god etc is a myth. A weird cult starting in Judea after somebody was executed doesn't make the Christian religion true. It just shows that Christianity could have originated in some weird cult which started in Judea.

PS: Humans haven't changed much in 2,000 years. People are supposed to have claimed they'd seen Jesus after his death. A lot of people claimed they'd seen Elvis after his death. We still have weird cults breaking out - Heaven's Gate is a good example.

Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religion based in San Diego, California, founded in the early 1970s and led by Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1927–1985).[1] On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the group who had committed suicide[2] in order to reach what they believed was an alien space craft following the Comet Hale–Bopp, which was at its brightest.[3]

PPS: I'm baffled by the idea that anyone who suggests that there might have been a real man behind all the myths and legends is trying to prove that the Christian religion is true. Many Rabbis who follow traditional Judaism think that there might have been a real man somewhere - they're trying to show that the Christian religion is a load of superstition based on some guy who didn't qualify as being a Messiah.