This is all a little disingenuous. What Roy perhaps means to say is that of the historians who believe that Jesus existed at all, a certain percentage of them believe his parents were called Mary and Joseph, and so on: but he fails to inform us that a significant proportion of historians consider the whole story to have been fabricated at a later date, making Jesus a fictional figure along the lines of Gandalf or Gilgamesh.

See for instance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

Oddly enough, the historians who claim to have found evidence of a historical Jesus also tend to be those with a prior religious affiliation. This doesn't constitute evidence of bias, of course, but as Mandy Rice-Davis said in similar circumstances: "Well, they WOULD, wouldn't they?"

Dear Jon,

You may be interested in a book by Barbara Thiering,
"Jesus The Man: A new interpretation from The
Dead Sea Scrolls."

"The virgin birth, the miracles, and the resurrection
can be viewed in an entirely new light... They never
were literal events... nor were they myths, traditional
legends, as scholars have often held. Something really
did happen, and what happened opens up a whole new
understanding of historical Christianity."
(from the Introduction to "Jesus The Man.").

…The real mystery remains, why the “need” for a barrage of miracles in the Christian story? The need for miracles two thousand years ago no longer applies; as the miracle of the continuation of the Christian faith supersedes them all. That is “the” miracle!

…The belief system of Christianity which brings spiritual comfort and a moral direction in a chaotic modern world, a world perched precariously on the edge of its own destruction, to me is the greatest of miracles. Christmas is the joyous and welcome reminder of hope in a future for humanity, both here and beyond. What a miracle!

Christmas Day. Have a happy day.
To me, myself, I look on Christmas as a day to celebrate the miracle that we are all here, enjoying what is around us, all life, fixed and moving.
I would say that over the millions of years before us people have tried to explain the fact that we are here, and the Christmas story is one such story.
How about just saying that we are made up of a chance combination of chemicals and that when we die, the chemicals revert to their original state. Why concoct all the hype!

Is this political correctness gone mad. Where I work dealing face to face with the public. I was told on Thursday "Tomorrow (Friday) is 'mufti day' you can wear 'casual clothes' but they mustn't be Christmas no 'Merry Christmas' no 'Raindears etc' on them and don't wish people a 'Merry Christmas' just something like 'Happy Holiday'.
I'm not religious, but things can be carried to extremes, 'I wish you the appropriate disposition for the legal holiday at hand."
As for the Jesus story kids love it, shepherds, donkeys wisemen etc. My son was in a nativity play when he was 4, staring roll as a tree ha ha.

Dear Lexi,

According to Wikipedia on Barbara Theiring:

"In 1993 N. T. Wright, New Testament historian and former Bishop of Durham, wrote:[3]
It is safe to say that no serious scholar has given this elaborate and fantastic theory any credence whatsoever. It is nearly ten years since it was published; the scholarly world has been able to take a good look at it: and the results are totally negative."

Given this, why should I give them any more attention than the hundreds of other crackpot theories circulating around the birth, life and death of the hypothetical Jesus Christ?