How is it that all serious New Testament scholars agree that Jesus existed?

It doesn't really matter if Jesus existed or not. If he existed, the stories about him are grossly exaggerated. Unfortunately I have as much faith in New Testament scholars as I do in Creation Science, which is none. I have examined all the evidence presented by christians for a historical Jesus and all of them fail because none were alive during the supposed life of Jesus. Josephus is a historian that christians use, but Josephus wasn't born until 37 a.d and Jesus supposedly died no later than 33 a.d.. How could Josephus know anything about a real Jesus when Josephus wasn't even alive? The same for the rest of the christian sources, none were alive during the supposed life of Jesus. Those who were alive and living in the region wrote nothing about a Jesus. So if no one can provide an author who was actually an eyewitness to the actual Jesus, why shouldn't I think he is just a fictional character? Even the writers of the New Testament claim they were not eyewitnesses. Mark claims he was recording what Peter had told him, Matthew what Paul had told him, Paul only had a vision not the physical Jesus, Luke says he had only done research and John wrote way too late to even be alive at the time. Why did they use the Old Testament to write their stories, why does Matthew and Luke use the writings of Mark as one of their sources for their stories? The bible is not like a diary where they wrote daily what was happening. Like any work of fiction it was designed with a purpose. The christian community has many lies built in to protect itself and you have to know the right questions to ask or notice minuscule details that expose the deception. You can see many historical figures that mention Jesus being real and that looks convincing until you ask, when were they born and did they actually know a physical Jesus? As soon as you ask those questions, the list drops to zero and you begin to understand that just like today, they were merely repeating the stories they had heard. I can tell you all sorts of things about Jesus, but I can also tell you all sorts of things about Santa Clause. Just because a fictional character can seem real doesn't make them real.