I still have no reason to believe jesus was a real person.  But I will cite a line from George Carlin; "If you think the average American is stupied, remember half the population is even dumber then he is." .    Yes all religions are a con or has Mark Twain put it.  "Religion is believing something you know aint so".  I always wonder what the church people makeing money off the con would be doing without religion.

Once upon a time in a small village in 1st Century Judea in the local market a local had a new model of an olive press he was trying to sell. He came up with this:
"You know how that the olive pits and skins are always getting into the oil and have to be strained. My new press is so superior it has no need for that."

"IT'S A MIRACLE." He screams loudly, gathering a huge crowd.

"YES, IT'S A MIRACLE" he again screams.

Customers line up 10 deep to buy his olive press.

Meanwhile far back in the crowd a desert prophet was praying over a lame man.

Suddenly over his prayers the loud voice of the Olive press hawker is heard, "IT'S A MIRACLE"
Other people even farther back take this to mean the lame man can now walk.
Benjamin from Damascus heard this and took it to mean the disheveled prophet had healed the lame man. Though he never did see him rise, he thought he had.

He leaves the village and heads out down the road to travel towards his home in Damascus. That night he lodges in a tavern where over many goblets of wine he recounts the miracle he thought he had seen in the marketplace of Capernaum.
He of course embellishes the story somewhat giving himself a role. He tells the others at his table that a lame and blind man were both sitting by the town gates and he took them both to this desert healer prophet he knew about. The healer prayed over them for a short time and suddenly the lame man was dancing about the market. The blind man suddenly could see and was running about singing praise to God.

Levi was sitting at another table and overheard this story. Levi heads out to his home in Jeezreel. When Levi gets home he has a few goblets of wine with his neighbor and recounts the story but of course adds a bit to it as well. He said a group of lepers, a blind man and a lame man were all sitting by the town gate in a village and this desert prophet came along and healed them all. His neighbor Joab said, yes I think I hear of this guy, I think he's called Jesus.

Next thing you know this spreads throughout all of the markets and lodges throughout Judea. There is a prophet called Jesus that heals by just waving his hands over you.

Sooner or later this gets to a carpenter who had been associating with John the baptist. Not missing a beat, he claims yes it was me.

 I find it perfectly plausible that Jesus was simply a very talented street magician. Most of his "miracles" are fairly simple to do with sleight of hand skills and a willing stooge or two. It actually would be pretty entertaining if a magician attempted to recreate every miracle using technology that existed at that time. I imagine walking on water would be the most difficult to recreate without resorting to plexiglass, but if you can control the perspective of the witnesses even that might be possible. Turning water into wine, Of course, it is equally likely that most of the stories are flat out false. 

There was a Christian illusionist on National Geographic Channel exploring the possibility that Jesus was just a street magician fooling people.  He went through various miracles, including walking on water, seeing if he could recreate a plausible scenario.  I think it was on Naked Science (an awesome show on National Geographic that I recommend).  I don't remember how it ended, but he probably concluded that Jesus was divine (no surprise there) and that he couldn't have been fooling people. 

He was a typical cool Christian -- the subtext being "Hey, look at me!  Christians can be cool too.  Just convert to Jesus and you can be cool like me.  I'm also more moral than you."  I'm not saying I'm a cool person, but the cool Christians annoy me sometimes; I think it's because of the appeal to emotion.  I'm insulted that they think I'd fall for it.  It's like when they show me cool Christian rock music, like I'm supposed to convert on the spot because of the deluge of coolness.  Nope.

What is shameful above and beyond people's readiness to be deceived, is the belief that "magical" implies "good" -- as if one's ability to perform miracles automatically makes him worthy of respect and supplication.

Jim Jones convinced his adherents he had divine powers by appearing to pull organs out of living people.  Sai Baba was revered in India as a living god (up until the time he died), which he confirmed for his devotees by pulling trinkets seemingly out of thin air (even watches with the manufacturer's serial # -- it takes a real god to pull that off).

There just so happen to be embarrassingly simple sleight-of-hand methods to duplicate the aforementioned feats, but in the end, what difference does it make?  If Jim Jones actually had divine powers, would the Jonestown massacre be regarded as a blessed event instead of a tragedy?  If Sai Baba was a real Seiko-palming god, would his escapades of molestation (as ex-devotees have accused him of) rise suddenly above reproach?  

And suppose jesus' magic show was the real thing.  Would you want to follow him or his proxies simply on those grounds?