OK I am not using this to be provocative on the eve of Easter holidays. Just thinking of this when I saw El Pres mention about wanting to go back in time and listen to what he said.
Obvious thing is that he is alluded to by people that possibly never even met him. People writing in the bible many years after the alleged events took place sometimes centuries.
Many of these stories too, contradict themselves.
The other thing is that many elements of Jesus "appear" borrowed. The old but popular Cult of Ishtar (that was ironically late amalgamated into Christianity) celebrated her and her son's divinity. She was a virgin and his a virgin birth.
But that is not the only instance of people that were known or as I see it, perhaps vying "cult figures" from competing sects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonius_of_Tyana, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Magus, and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_BaptistLook closely and you will see competing talents or skills. In fact, Jesus could be seen as the "best bits" of each, amalgamated into a package of awesome.
You know how movies often (usually for narrative ease) combine aspects of historical figures and then with a bit of gratuitous licence, make an awesome film? Why could they not be doing the same with Jesus. Historians written text for the bible 50 - 100 years later, just combining the characters to make an awesome dude?
That all said, I think Because they seem too hard to wrap facts to fit the story not visa versa, I suspect there was a Jesus in some way, shape or form. I do not know if Jesus was his actual name or whether he was a much more toned down version BUT I think personally that he DID exist and was impressive to the people of the time.
