Uh, do you even know the guys I quoted? Bart Ehrman's entire life career is an attempt to dismantle Christianity. He's an atheist and he debates Christians and the Bible's accuracy constantly. If he could make a case that Jesus didn't exist, he would.
American universities are full of history professors who don't give a damn about religion or actively oppose it. Not to mention Jewish professors, who obviously would love to claim Jesus didn't exist. And the dare was to find a single tenured professor at an accredited university who pushes the idea that Jesus didn't exist...and the dare hasn't been met.
The actual evidence is as strong as for any non-ruling, non-writing historical figure of the time. There are dozens of independent sources within a century from both within and outside the church, half-a-dozen of them within 30-50 years. And the literary evidence is strong as hell - just reading the Gospels, there's all sorts of stuff in there that Christians never would have said about Jesus if they didn't have a real person to defend. And explaining the historical progression of Christianity that's not based on a real Jesus starting it is impossible outside of wacko-territory...which is why the only people who do it are random unemployed guys with B.A.'s in history working out of their basement and internet trolls.
