Yes, Jesus existed … but relax, you can still be an atheist if you want to

Fifth, the majority of scholars would probably adopt a check-list of ten events attributed to Jesus which they are fairly confident about:

1. Jesus was born ca. 4 BCE during the time of Herod the Great.
2. Jesus spent his childhood and early adult years in Nazareth, Galilee.
3. He was baptised by John the Baptist.
4. He called disciples.
5. He preached the kingdom of God.
6. He taught in the rural environs of Galilee and Judea.
7. He created a disturbance in the temple area in Jerusalem
8. He had a final meal with his disciples.
9. He was arrested and interrogated by the Jewish authorities.
10. He was executed by Pontius Pilate.

(E.P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus [London: Penguin, 1993], pp. 9-10)

Beyond that, a lot of things are up for debate; but there is a fairly wide consensus on these events about Jesus.

Sixth, Mr. Lataster’s article clearly emerges out of his self-published book, There Was No Jesus, There Is No God – a title that unveils his purposes. Lataster is not writing an independent and unbiased account of Christian origins; he seems to be writing an apologetic tract for his tribe, providing solace to his atheist friends who are concerned that this Jesus thing might be a bit too real for their comfort. To them I say, relax. There are substantial reasons why one might choose to reject Christian belief; but the question of whether Jesus existed is not one of them. Even if there is no God, there was still an historical Jesus.

Michael Bird has written two monographs on the historical Jesus, contributed to the Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus, and authored an award-winning book on the origins of the Gospels.