Jesus was as real as anyone in history.
Want to call him a myth?
Then rid yourself of the idea that Aristotle, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar were any more than poetic inventions. There are more written documents, you could say more reliability to the story of Jesus than anyone else in ancient history.
Of course those in the Christian camp say this. But was there any contemporary of Jesus who wasn't religious n that ever recorded anything about him?
Yes. Several people. Enough that even the skeptic should wonder.
Josephus was a prominent 1st Century Jewish Roman historian and provides significant details about the period.
"At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. . . . Pilate condemned Him to be condemned and to die. And those who had become His disciples did not abandon His discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them three days after His crucifixion and that He was alive; accordingly, He was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders" (Antiquities, xviii.ch. 3, subtopic 3, Arabic text).
Tacitus was a Roman historian also in the 1st Century. One of his writings focuses on the burning of the city of Rome, which the Emperor Nero himself is thought to have started, then blamed on Christians.
"Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also" (Annals XV.44).
Lucian was a 2nd Century Greek satirist. Note the wit and sarcasm in his words.
"The man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world. . . . Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they were all brothers one of another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws" (On the Death of Peregrine).
The divinity of Jesus might be questioned.
But those who believe that Jesus as a person was merely a myth belong in the same group as those who think the sun revolves around the earth, and that the earth is flat.
There was a man named Jesus from Nazareth who taught great things, had a significant group of followers, and was crucified by Pontius Pilate. It was assumed that his followers would quickly cease; instead they spread throughout the world with in single statement.
This is the statement that separates those who believe in him as the Son of God, and those who thing he was only a historical figure.
He is not dead; he is alive.