For 99.999% of Christian's Jesus wasn't materially real.

The general belief amongst atheists, theists, historians, yadda yadda, is that Jesus was probably a real person.

A pretty common argument for the historicity of Jesus is the sheer unlikelihood of the religion kicking off if it was not grounded in historical truth.

My argument against this claim is that for the vast majority of Christians, Jesus was not materially real. From the very moment he did or did not die, the name of the game was not to prove that he was real, but to convince people that he was real. No material evidence, or hard evidence, has been presented since his so called death; yet millions of Christians arise every decade.

To me this is a pretty strong point on even giving Christianity (and the expanded universe...) more benefit-of-the-doubt than I do other non-Abrahamic religions. Historians are obviously completely enveloped in Christian society. Convincing the "average" historian that Jesus was real shouldn't be our bar.