Okay I get it, the Freedom from Religion Foundation or FFRF is out to remove all traces of Christianity in America and replace it with what they believe to be reason. I understand there are militant atheists in America, hey they’ve got that right to be all up in your face about worshiping, oh, say math. “We pray to thee oh quadratic equation that…” You can finish that however you want. Hey I don’t judge anyone based on their religion or lack thereof, that is between you and God or not if you so want to believe. But, really, awarding a $1000 scholarship to a Tennessee student for dressing as Jesus on his school’s Dress as a Fictional Character Day is dumber than saying spending money with In God We Trust on it forces you to recognize a diety. Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF, located in Madison, Wisconsin, said, “We wanted to encourage him, and we know the cost of higher education. This is just a small stipend toward that.” This isn’t the first time they’ve awarded a student a scholarship for dressing as Jesus on Fictional Character day, just the latest.
So you want to reward ignorance? No really, I understand you are for Freedom from Religion but are you also against freedom from intelligence. You see, Jesus is part of the historical record. It is not a debatable fact, he lived 2000 years ago and appears in many historical texts.
Even if you discount the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) as tainted because they are part of the Bible (usually these militant types want non Biblical proof) you still have plenty of references. Cornelius Tacitus the Roman historian (55-120 A.D.) confirmed the execution of Jesus Chrestus (a misspelling of Christ) by Pilate. Suetonius in the 2nd Century, Pliny the Younger in his histories, Thallus and Phlegon, both historians in the early first century confirmed the crucifixion of Jesus as well. The list goes on and on. You find a strange occurence in history, the closer a document is written to the time it happened the more accurate it has proven to be. This is fact. So if you go back to the gospels you will find they were all written before 100 A.D.; the earliest, Mark, was written between 50 and 65 A.D., well within the time that the writer would have been writing with first hand knowledge of events. Clearly Jesus was alive and well, at least before and then a few days after the crucifixion (those middle days he may have been a bit dead), sometime in the 1st century. He is a historical figure, do some independent research if you don’t believe me. Clearly he lived.
Now whether or not the FFRF believes he is God is up to them, but don’t go filling the heads of people with idiocy that is clearly not true. If they want to award scholarships to those too dumb to make that distinction just tells me they are throwing away money to educate morons.
afbevil
FearTaco
gonzoligarchy
Stuff BQ Knows 
The problem is there isn’t much proof. The writers you mentioned never claim they saw this happen or even that they believe it, they merely repeat what they heard Christian say. For example all Cornelius Tactius or Pliny the Younger says is that there are Christians and they believe in Christ.
There is no independent evidence such as eye witness accounts or Roman records such as the census which supposedly happened when Jesus was born or records of his execution (you’d think the Romans might comment on the fact that one of their victims was still alive after being killed).
Regards the Gospel of Mark you take the absolute most optimistic and earliest possible date (which even still is 30-40 years after Jesus’s death (as we dont know when he was born we dont know when he died)). Most scholars estimate between 65 and 75 AD (summary of debate http://atheism.about.com/od/biblegospelofmark/a/dating.htm) Also remember that Mark was the first book whereas the last one was John written around 100 AD. As people had a life span of about 30 in Roman times this means several generations had passed.
http://robertnielsen21.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/was-jesus-real/
.http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/scott_oser/hojfaq.html
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Strange you mention the skeptic lifespan of 30-40 when in fact there is recorded evidence of many living well beyond that time frame. http://www.preventingtruthdecay.org/firstcenturylifespans.shtml
So the time frame of 50 or even 65 to 100 AD (John has been dated to approx the 90’s a.d. would be accurate for people to have been alive to write the gospels and/or write the gospels on first hand testimony. the simple stated fact 30-40 doesn’t hold water.
However, there is also plenty of proof for Jesus existence in Cornelius Tacitus
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/tacitus.html
Additionally, you sound like you are making the hearsay claim that others make, disregarding the fact that most of the references to Jesus are from historians who are usually very exacting about how they record history. Citing sources was not widely done in the 1st Century and the sources they may have used to record their own histories were probably lost.
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I’m disappointed with your evidence. Two vague reports is all you have? Neither of which are remotely scientific. The Bible contains many characters who supposedly lived for hundreds of years, but its not taken seriously.
http://www.utexas.edu/depts/classics/documents/Life.html
Again Tactius merely says there were people who believed in Christ. He does not say it was true or provide evidence either way. All he tells us is that there Christians in Rome at the time.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus_on_Christ
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So your graph shows roughly 20% of the pop above age 50. Interesting. I guess that proves my point, not your own. If you use Wikipedia as a source I will discount anything you put on it. Much like with how you discount the Bible I discount wiki, too many cooks if you will. However, I think your wiki source pretty much destroys your own argument on Tacitus.
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