Who invented Jesus?

Not long ago, I posted a documentary that put forth the notion that the Flavians, a group of Roman nobles, invented Jesus, meek and mild, to take the mickey out of the Jewish insurgents.

I had never heard of the notion before and had done no research on the documentary. I posted it because I found it interesting...and jarring.

It was interesting to me because, like Dot Calm, I grew up Catholic. It had never occurred to me that Jesus might not have been an actual historical figure. So, what if He weren't? Can one still believe in a purely mystical, celestial Jesus whose earthly exploits are intangible illustrations? Does it make sense to believe a myth if it's the myth that one has grown up with, or does that relegate the believer to the ranks of believers in Zeus, Mithras, Pele, or thousands of other now-discredited gods?

The documentary was jarring to me because it very clearly showed, even if not a completely accurate account, that it is indeed possible to make up an entire religion--to fabricate it from whole cloth. Many non-Mormons believe that this is exactly what Joseph Smith did; many Christians believe that this is exactly what Mohammed did.

But what if the inventors of Christianity just made it all up, too?

What if people have been killing each other for thousands of years over a religion that is pure fiction? What if the people who have been organizing their entire lives around a made-up religion have sacrificed their lives--what if they have been duped into eschewing the only life we know we all have--by refusing to live their lives fully in the hopes of a future life after death that exists only in writings thousands of years old?

Dr. Robert Price thinks that the Flavian invention of Jesus is too far a stretch of the imagination--too "DaVinci code" to be plausible. But he does bring up some points that make the Biblical Jesus something of an oddity, like humbly paying your taxes to Rome or, if pressed into service by a Roman soldier, carrying his pack two miles instead of one. And he does, like Dr. Richard Carrier, believe that Jesus is a myth. Dr. Carrier admits that, by disbelieving in a historical Jesus, he is an outlier among students of Bible-era history. But he does present some interesting, perhaps compelling, arguments.

Here's an audio of Dr. Price discussing why he doesn't buy the Flavian invention of Jesus while still remaining convinced that Jesus is a myth. Did Jesus live when the Biblical gospels say or a hundred years earlier per now-discarded gospels? Under which emperor was Jesus executed? Who exactly put him to death? Quoting two or three Roman emperors and some half dozen claimed executioners in the various gospels, Dr. Price throws up his hands: "It's odd, if this was recent history, that people would have such radically different views on these fundamental things."

Here's an audio with Dr. Carrier. He has several videos on the historicity of Jesus on YouTube, in case you're interested.

Again, I ask: what if it is all made up?
How would you feel if you found out that it were?
What would you do?