I believe that the bible is being misused. Modern christianity is completely different from what it was intended to be.
And you know what it was intended to be...?
The bible. Here we have a book that contains stories of water being split, ghosts, talking mountaintops, flaming bushes and asexual reproduction in humans. I think (and this is just my interpretation, I'm not saying that I think I'm right) that the bible was meant to be a storybook. At the time of its creation christianity was a moral compass, a way of teaching people morality and "the right thing to do," shaping civilizations into societies with laws and standards of behaviour. There was no belief in god, no heaven or hell, just sins. Christianity wasn't a faith, but a moral code. The bible was the handbook of this code, teaching people through stories in much the same way little timmy learns in his bedtime storybook that calling people names is bad. God wasn't an invisible man in the sky with divine powers, but an inspiration. He's an ideal role model, and you'd strive to be like him.
I think you have your dates a little off. The new testament was not written until many decades after Jesus did his ministry and was crucified. By this point the apostles had begun to spread Christianity, in particular the message of Jesus. You say that there was no belief in God, or heaven and hell, but they believed in that stuff for centuries before the new testament was even written. The Jewish faith, which was the predecessor of Christianity, believed in the same God.
Christianity changed though. When it became mainstream, it was some kind of authority standing, very close to the government. Suddenly god and the bible became real, heaven and hell existed, and people became very scared. Suddenly, there was an all powerful being watching their every move, with a promise of either heaven, the eternal paradise or hell, the punishment for disobeying god.
God and the Bible had always been real, before to the Jews, and now to the Christians. It didn't just suddenly become reality, people have had reverence towards God for generations upon generations; he did not just suddenly pop into peoples minds when it went "mainstream".
In reality, people were being controlled by fear. It can be argued that a shaman is the true leader of a tribe, exclusively able to contact the gods and know their wishes. By extension, his word is law. A priest is no different. Everyone was terrified of going to hell, and did whatever they told them to do.
No, maybe in your reality.
Creationism is a culprit here. It pushed evolution out of classrooms, and furthered the belief in god. The story of the bible was apparently real. There's a double standard here, seen in other "religions" like scientology. A Religion does not want to coexist with its alternatives. It needs to crush the opposition to flourish, and creationism is a perfect example of this.
Creationism pushed evolution out of the classroom? People have believed that the bible fact since the book was written, way before any classrooms...
Part of the reason that I don't believe in god is that he can't be proven to exist. That is, he doesn't do anything. In the bible, god had an active prescence, interacting with people in various ways, performing miracles and such. He must have retired or something.
Yes, God did retire. We actually had him crucified, so...umm...no more miracles.
Oh, and about the religion = morality thing, humans are social creatures. We group together and form societies, and morality develops from our interpersonal behaviour. We all act a certain way to fit to a standard of behaviour, and we all expect some degree of conformity. If your parents have sound morals and teach them to you, religion isn't needed at all.
I do not believe that it is human nature to be conform to a standard of behavior. I think that there is an inherent selfishness that exists within every single person. Everything that a human would naturally do is driven by the question, what is in it for me? Why did we group together and for societies? It was not to for a standard of behavior, but simply because it was more beneficial to live in groups. Religion attempts to undo that selfish nature. Relgion does not equal morality, but it comes pretty damn near.
Politically, religion is our bane. It divides us, fuels hate and compels us to wage war against each other. Unless we develop some kind of panreligious movement, world peace is impossible with religion present.
Religion is not perfect, because man is not perfect. World peace is impossible because of the same part of the human condition I mentioned above; selfishness. It is not religions fault that people fight for it. I, for example, am a very avid Catholic, yet hold absolutely no grudge or anger towards other religions; I particularly enjoy participating in interfaith events. The church itself has tried to teach the importance of being at peace with people of different faiths, in particular to accept other religions in so much as they lead souls to the Christ. You can read up on this further in the document Nostra Aetate in the Vatican 2 documents. It's quite interesting actually...