> You have the facts.
The facts I have present a fairy tale on par with those in Grimm's Fairy Tales. The evidence does NOT exzceed those of Grimm's, however. Were I to here the Christ story in any other context, I believe I woudl be forgiven for having some skepticism. But as it is, a fantastical tale with no evidentary backup is expected to be believed... or otherwise I am assumed to be a fool, a liar or crazy.
I don't buy it. The "evidence" is circumstantial and hearsay. The best this evidence does is show that some time after Christ's supposed death, some peopel believed. But as I pointed out, repeatedly, some time after Elvis' death, people believed him to be alive as well. So simply believing fervently is no proof against being dead wrong.
Also, your logic is seriously flawed in many other ways. Your objectiosn to assumign the historiocity of, say Julius Caesar and not Jesus Christ coems from the fact that the earliest extant works mentioning Jesus are older than those mentioning Caesar. As I've shown, though, that's amssively untrue. If you pony up the cash, you can own your very own Caesar-era portrait of the man with his name stamped on it. But even so: the logic itself is flawed. If you were to research an old topic - say, Shakespeares plays - you would be well within your rights to use a *modern* printing. You would not need to find Shakespeares original hand-written manuscripts. However, a modern copy of those manuscripts is a more valid reference than an original parchment copy of an essay on those plays written thirty years after Shakespeare's death.
Coupled with the contradictions and historical errors in the Gospels*, it's just a damned hard story to buy into.
*In Matthew, Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great. In Luke, Jesus was born during the first census in Israel, while Quirinius was governor of Syria. Herod died in March of 4 BC and the census took place in 6 and 7 AD. Also, Herod was reported by MAthew to have slain all the 2-year olds to get rid of the Messiah. But Josephus, who everyone likes to quote as "proving" Jesus, makes entirely no mention of this... even though Josephus liked to chrinicle Herods crimes. Slaughter of toddelrs would be at the top of the list... but it isn't. Mathew says that pieces of silver were paid to Judas... buta s far as I've been able to determine, pieces of silver had gone out of circulation in that area some centuries before. In Mathew 27:5, Judas hangs himself; in Acts 1:18 he bursts open [!].
You lost. Good bye.