Did Jesus exist...outside of baseball diamonds?

Question

seriously...proof is needed...

Was Jesus of Nazareth a real, live, flesh and blood individual who walked the earth approximately 2,000 years ago. If he didn't Christianity would be dealt a blow from which it could never recover. The most significant aspect of this matter is that there is no reference to Jesus of Nazareth in any non-Christian writings of antiquity. One can peruse all the great literature of that era and find nothing proving the man even existed. "There is no history written at the time Jesus Christ is said to have lived that speaks of the existence of such a person, even as a man" (The Life and Works of Paine,Vol 9, p. 271). "We know nothing certainly of Jesus Christ. We know nothing of his infancy, nothing of his youth, and we are not sure that such a person even existed" (Interviews, Ingersoll's Works, Vol. 5, p. 273. Anyone wishing to believe in the reality of Jesus will have to rely upon the New Testament and the NT alone. There is no other source.

So what source

Answer 1

http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/naij3.html

This is a research site not a Christian site, it deals only with the historical facts. To say that Jesus is a myth, is mentally lazy, He did live and history backs that up.

Weather you choose to believe that he is the Son of God or not is solely up to you. But the fact is he lived and historians of the time back that up. From the Roman government to other historians of the day.

Answer 2

Why would there be mentions of Jesus in non-Christian writings from antiquity?

He was an obscure figure in a small, obscure sect that was little-known even among most of his countrymen, in an obscure country dominated by a far more powerful nation that got most of the headlines.

It's all the unsubstantiated legends that sprang up around him after his death that caught the fancy of a few who decided that it was then their mission in life to spread the word of these rather unbelievable accounts.

Christianity is, then, the beneficiary (and victim) of its own relentless need to proselytize and evangelize. Its obvious success over the past two millennia has little, if anything, to do with the truth of its assertions, or the validity of the promises it makes (and has never been able to keep).