The family I grew up in had a Jewish background and somewhat Jewish culture, but we were never religious. After my parents split, my Mom joined a Unitarian church and had me go to Unitarian Sunday school. Unitarian Sunday school is great. It was a several years long comparative religion course! I really learned a lot. Totally worthwhile.Most of the people I know from my experience with the Unitarian church are what I would call "vague theists" Not exactly agnostic, but not that eager to specify the nature of God either. As adults, lots of them have adopted "pet" religions. Neopaganism, Buddhism, Wicca are all popular.
Anyway, my religious education did lead me to a few conclusions. One of them is that there was a real person who this New Testament character Jesus Christ was based on. I'm guessing that he was some itinerant Jewish preacher. There is close to zero historical evidence of this guy. I don't read that as evidence of his nonexistence so much as evidence of his insignificance. It just makes marginally more sense that somebody who was the basis of this character actually existed. Make no mistake, I am certain that the water walking, leper healing, rising from the dead, miracle man is a total invention, that the real guy who the story was imposed on didn't do any of those things, sort of like Washington chopping down the cherry tree or chucking a dollar across the Potomac.
A lot of agnostic and atheist people I encounter hold it as a core belief that this Jesus guy never existed in any form, was completely made up from the whole cloth.
Is it important to you that he did or did not exist?