@Deus
God didn’t give Him cancer. If you read the gospels you will see that a huge chunk of Jesus’ time was spent healing people (not making them sick). So if He did make people sick, then heal them that would kind of be like digging a hole and filling it back up again. Seems like a waste of time to me…

Here are some books which I’ve found very useful . . . you can buy used copies, probably find them in a decent undergraduate library.

Basically, appreciate that xianity is merely another religion which had a beginning, a middle, and will have an end. There’s nothing special about it — and it deserves attention only because of its cruel domination of the Western mind for 1,000 years.

Wilken, R. The christians as the romans saw them. Yale. 1984.
Looks at the roman intellectual and governmental reaction to the rise and spread of xianity. Period from roughly 100-400 CE. Provocative concluding chapter on xianity as a “jewish heresy.”

Celsus. The true doctrine. (trans/intro RJ Hoffman) Oxford. 1987.
Translation of the greek original published perhaps at the request of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, about 180 CE. Presents many arguments against xian beliefs and practices. A “pagan” intellectual’s condemnation of an upstart religion. One he considers “atheistic” and unpatriotic. Quite amusing in some places. And, from our xian-ridden perspective, highly ironic.

Onfray. M. Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
2006. Recent translation of Onfray’s French text. Basically, a work in history and historiography. Good sections on Jesus as a fictional character and on fundamentalism, especially within Islam. Deserves to be better known.

Look up these volumes at amazon.com and you’ll find lots of others.

bipolar2