Originally posted by orfeo
You miss my point entirely, I think.
It is generally accepted that Jesus is a historical figure. The onus is to prove that he ISN'T.
Whether it is generally accepted that he is a deity or alive today is utterly irrelevant to this th ...[text shortened]... alestine preaching, got himself into trouble and was put to death.
Jesus is generally accepted without question as a historical figure by the ignorant masses. Their ideas are of little consequence as they generally have no solid grounds for making such claims.
Now among scholars of that time period and geographic region, the majority opinion is still that Jesus was a historical figure, however many dissenting opinions exist as well. Given this disagreement among experts
ad populum appeals are entirely orthogonal to any intelligent discussion.
You believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a true historical figure. David wants to know why, given that there are some good reasons to think that he may be a mythological character. You should now provide the empirical evidence that makes you believe as you do and give reasons why you think David's hypothesis is weak. David has also given rebutals of some common responses (e.g. Tactitus, Josephus). Tell us why you think those rebuttals are insufficient to remove these examples as evidence for a historical Jesus, or acknowledge that they are not good evidence and provide some other source.
Just claiming that Jesus is generally accepted as a historical figure is a cop-out. You need to show why he is generally accepted as such and demonstrate that these reasons are solid. Nobody has to
prove anything in a hard mathematical sense. Each side just needs to present the reasons for their case and let the chips fall where they may.
If the terms of proof were as you say, then nobody could criticize the majority opinion without first proving an alternative. That's ridiculous and anathema to good academic work. The point here is to think about why you believe something (historical or mythical) and hear other people's arguments for both cases.