how do atheists explain jesus?

What do I do with the figure of Jesus? Jesus professed great common sense—blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacekeepers, love your enemy, turn the other cheek, forgive trespasses, don't pray in public, judge not lest you be judged, do unto others as you want to be done by. Of course, most of that message predates Jesus by thousands of years and most modern Christians refuse it anyway-- not that Christianity should be blamed for its misuse.

I don't think that Jesus performed the miracles that Christianity claims. A common but remarkably uncreative "proof" of the divinity of Jesus unfolds as follows: Jesus called himself the Son of God and claimed to perform miracles. This allows three possibilities: 1) he lied, 2) he was a psychopath, or 3) he was telling the truth. I don't consider any of these answers appropriate. I think his divine nature was prescribed onto him by oral traditionalists in the century following his death. Otherwise, he was either a liar or a psychopath-- but still a good guy that preached some great common sense!