There was no Jesus

[harumph]

8. I think a lot of liberal Christians

believe that Jesus was likely a real but obscure figure amongst a number of messianic preachers during the Roman occupation in the first century. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's hypothesis is that Jesus was a Torah observant rabbi with some good ideas and bad publicists.

Edited to add: the fact that there is little contemporaneous validation (Josephus is close...) doesn't mean much as the Roman bureaucracy routinely condemned and executed subversives willy-nilly and scant documentation is to be had for that period in ancient Judea, mostly because between 66 CE and 70 CE, the Romans pretty much tore the place up..