Judaeo-Atheism?

Disclaimer: this topic is about religion. If you can't handle any perceived criticisms contained herein, then please do not read this blog update. Thank you.

A little under a week ago, I had dinner with a friend from medical school. He invited me to a public speaking event at Purdue this Friday in which some Christian speaker is going to give a 2-hour talk on "10 Bad Arguments Against Religion." My friend respects that I am a non-believer but as a former non-believer himself he encouraged me to come with him to see this. As he pointed out, and I agree, I win either way: because either the speaker will win me over (in which case I would after-the-fact be happy to have been won over) -or- he will provide me with excellent fodder for religious debates in the future.

The only problem I have is, it's 2 hours long. @_@ Why couldn't it just be an hour? Then again, I suppose it's understandable -- at 10 points per 100-120 minutes (depending on how much time he uses for an introduction and a conclusion and Q&A), that's only 10-15 minutes per topic. I guess that's fair.

Anyway, all of this is just an introduction to the blog's main focus. The title, "Judaeo-Atheism?", was selected because when my friend called back to remind me about his offer, I was reminded of another thought I had had earlier in the morning. In fact, that's why I've signed on right now: just to jot this down so I don't forget to do it later! But I thought it could prove interesting to some of you, or that someone might even have something to say on the matter. So here's the thought:

Of all 21st-century journalism dealing with religion, much of the focus in America has been on Christianity vs. atheism. Part of the problem of engaging these two titans in war with one another is that the Christians voice so many claims that the atheists do not believe in. Because of this, both sides must laboriously defend or destroy each and every one of those points every time a debate between them arises. They must do so or else inevitably some troll (on either side) will argue that the war has not been won, the point not proven, the faith (or absence of faith, depending on which side is taking the bruising that particular day) unshattered.

Yet I think we can all can agree that the Christian movement would be meaningless without the legitimacy of Christ's being the Messiah. Fundamentally, the original Christians splintered off from the Jews because of a disagreement over whether Jesus really was the Messiah or not; and today, Jesus Christ being seen as the Messiah whom God sent to save men's souls is the centrepiece of the Christian faith. The idea that God humbled himself to come down into the body of a mortal man and died for our sins loses a lot of its majesty (apparently?) if Jesus is not in point of fact God incarnate (or at least so say Christians; Muslims have a different take on that, but whatever).

So this got me thinking: I wonder what the Jews have got to say about all of this? After all, I thought to myself, Judaism has had over 2000 years to go the way of the dodo -- and it hasn't. With each passing generation, the Christian faith has had numerous opportunities to absorb young and eager Jewish men and women into the loving arms of the Church -- and it has still failed to do so to any appreciable extent (i.e. the # of Jews who become Christians is not significantly large, i.e. it is not enough to drive the Jewish faith out of existence). I reject the notion that all Jews must have been indoctrinated as Jews, because I know many people who became faiths that they weren't indoctrinated in and I see no reason to believe why Judaism should be seen as any different.

So I said to myself, "I wonder what counter-points the modern-day Jew has or uses in debates with Christians?" That is to say, fundamentally, it's all just a matter of faith -- but that doesn't mean that I still can't hope to find *SOME* rationale behind the continual Jewish rejection of Jesus Christ as their personal savior. While I hesitate to say "they might be on to something," I heartily say, "I wonder in which ways the atheist camp and the Jewish camp have the same opinions of Christianity and in which ways they do not." That's all. I'm just curious to do some Jewish research on my own and to find out:
a) why did most ancient Jews reject the claim Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah?
b) why do most modern Jews continue to reject the same claim?
c) what arguments do modern Jews raise against Christ that the atheist could not apply to Moses, mutually revered by both Jews and Christians alike?
d) what arguments do modern Christians raise against the answers to letters a, b, and c?