Adjusted Knowledge:
Could you give me a reference to those of scholarly repute that believe the text that referenced Jesus was tampered with? Also what text exactly is being disputed as a forgery?
Suggest that you take the time to research the area yourself, rather than me point you in a given direction. That way, when you arrive at a conclusion, it will be one that you have arrived at and the one that you will agree with and trust. I could suggest Carrier as a starting point?
However, I think that it's important to look at this issue and its many facets as a whole rather than piecemeal. For example, how come that incidents that supposedly happened to jesus also happened to a number of historical deities too (eg. the resurrection?). Are we to believe that so many coincidences are realistic or are we to believe that jesus was a composite of historic deities? What are we to make of the fact that in spite of the plethora of miracles supposedly performed by jesus there is no primary source evidence? I could go on.
The existence of god is now under attack from science. It's not that science is out to disprove god, it's just that, in the search for truth, there will be some casualties and god may well be one of them, ultimately. Religion now understands this. Even the pope got involved last year when he stated that some scientists are now straying into 'god's realm'.
I now see religious groups battening down the hatches and madly scrambling for any purchase available in order that they able to defend the existence of their oh so precious Bronze Age Myth (AKA god, jesus, the babble yada, yada). Revisiting the likes of Josephus to see if they can spin and politic their way forward is just one such ploy. However, Josephus lived in Galilee about 30 mins. walk from where jesus was supposedly born. Yet, he makes no mention of this in his writings. Why? I could go on and on.
Looked at as a whole, the chances of jesus actually existing as a person aren't looking too good right now. There is no primary evidence whatsoever. The secondary evidence doesn't look good either, what little there is of it. If jesus falls, the rest falls too like a house of cards. Then, it's egg on face - BIG TIME. Then, just as Dawkins predicts, christianity could disappear in the space of a generation.
I also think that we also need to consider the following:
- Did life evolve or was it created?
- How did the universe come into being?
Science is winning both arguments at the moment and, if I was a betting man, I would want BIG, BIG, BIG odds before I bet on the big fella' me lad in the sky.