I'm not a Christian. I've only read the so-called synoptic gospels. I have no expertise in this area, just some interest. The book seemed to be a well-argued and logical proposition, not some wacky tirade. I found the evidence presented fascinating, particularly the reminders to evaluate the bible keeping in mind when its parts were written and what the authors could have known about Jesus himself and what others had written about him (or, in the case of Paul, hadn't written about him yet). ( )

This should have been more interesting but the author dropped the ball. It's not wise to keep quoting from the same five sources and not provide dissenting views. ( )

Nailed : Ten Christian Myths that Show Jesus Never Existed, is an overview of the arguments by the so-called Mythicists, that Jesus of Nazareth, call the Christ or Messiah, did not, or need not have existed. A friend who knows that I am an atheist, as well as interested in historical controversies, sent me the citation. I must admit that I had usually assumed that Jesus did exist. I saw The God Who Wasn't There by Richard Carrier, and, intrigued by the alleged similarities between Christianity and ancient mystery religions, read The Jesus Mysteries : Was the Original Jesus a Pagan God by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy recently. Although I have been an atheist for more than 35 years, I have mostly assumed that Jesus of Nazareth, or the Nazorean existed, with embellishments. Now I have moved toward an agnostic position on his existence.

David Fitzgerald assumes that his hypothetical Christian opponents take the Bible literally, which is a different argument in some ways than taking the Bible from the historical critical point of view as does Bart Ehrman is his book Did Jesus Exist? (Ehrman answers in the affirmative.) As Fitzgerald points out, taking the Bible literally makes it much harder to understand how Jesus, not to mention several hours of darkness, earthquakes, and a troop of dead people rising from the earth and being recognized in Jerusalem failed go be noticed by secular historians of the time.

Fitzgerald also offers doubts on the reliability of the Gospels, their coherence with Paul and the Epistles, and the failure of history and archeology to support Christian scripture, and the history of early Christianity. One interesting point that he makes is that early references to Christians are not the same thing as references to Christ.

This can be recommended as an overview of the Mythicist position. Ehrman, as noted above, take issue with these arguments in Did Jesus Exist?, and in turn Bart Ehrman and the Quest of the Historical Jesus of Nazareth, which is a collection of essays critiquing Ehrman. There was No Jesus, There is No God by Raphael Lataster critiques Ehrman and other writers, especially William Lane Craig. ( )

A poorly reasoned book. For explanations of its poor reasoning, one should read Bart Ehrman's Did Jesus Exist? and/or James P. Holding's Shattering the Christ Myth. ( )