I would offer this; it is okay to presuppose it is a misguided attempt to create a religion, even in the mind of an atheist. But I would point out that even as Christianity is concerned, we can go the historical route and discover many things that make Jesus truly come to life, even for some one that would argue otherwise with absurdities that well, only an Atheist would presuppose.
Here are some books that beg further digesting,

1. Try any of Dr. Robert H. Steins, well worth the read and they are usually less than 200 pages, (Introduction to the parables of Jesus, The Method & Message of Jesus Teachings and quite a few more.
2. Try Joachim Jeremias, the Germans really set the standard in the beginning of the 20th century
3. And Matthew Black, an Aramaic approach to the gospels and acts

It may not be Christianity that Jesus preached, but it surly set a standard to follow!
IMO when one can break the barriers of dogmas and see all sources, and then truly this individual will be rewarded inwardly by the spirit.
I have a much greater appreciation of the historical Jesus after checking these guys out!

I have always found that people can accept and even respect a claim to faith in uncertain areas much more than dogmatic, but weakly supported, “factual” confidence. And, in the end, it will be more persuasive. The latter they can dismiss, and usually rightly so, because it is an assertion of something that isn’t there: absolute proof. The former they can not dismiss, other than to dismiss matters of faith outright, so that leaves the door open, even if only a crack.

Vance, I agree. Those who have truly studied the options with the degree of objectivity that is available to them, can speak with honest and therefore gain quite a bit more authority. Again, it is an issue of irenics. The funny thing is that people who speak with the most baseless conviction, normally have the least amount of real confidence.

I really like the point that we should all limit our areas of dogmatism and present our position with the exact degree of certainty that the evidence and reasoning process supports.

And, if our belief is based, even in part, on faith rather than entirely on the “objective” evidence, then we need to make that an “up front” proposition.

I always have a great deal of respect for Christian scholars who admit that “but for my faith, the evidence when viewed entirely objectively would tend to point in another direction.” That takes guts.