Hi Umaro, It's hard for us today to comprehend what it was like to live in the ancient world before there was written language, easy transportation and population was exceedingly sparse.
If religious doctrine is not written down, or if there is not a large population base to remember it, it is extremely easy to corrupt or lose and thus changes very rapidly. If you look at linguistics, scientists believe that all languages started as one and evolved and merged into the many languages we have today. Language changes much more slowly that religious doctrine so I'm not sure why you feel that any proposed Christian timeline doesnt allow for the many religions that history records. Religion changes drastically in an instant by someone simply making a new one up.
Some historical examples: Around 600AD, Muhammad, who had traveled to Christian cities as a merchant, and was likely familiar with Christian teachings, came home and pronounced a new religion very similar to Judaism/Christianity, but one where he was the main link to the creator- a new religion in an instant.
During the failing days of the Roman Empire, Constantine (so the story goes) was fighting many contenders for the throne. He claims to have had a dream where he was told to go into battle under the sign of the cross. So he paints crosses on his standards and ends up winning the battle and then goes about founding a Christian-like church. Constantine the Greats church and doctrine would not be recognizable to Christians today; it was something of a mishmash of polytheistic superstitions with a Christian whitewash- a new religion in an instant.
The Roman emperors said they were gods and an entire religion-the imperial cult, began- a new religion in an instant.
The Bible says that Abraham left the gods of his fathers to follow God. This would mean that before the exile into Egypt, before the entire establishment of Judaism, or Israel, God had already been mostly forgotten. God re-established his relationship with mankind through Moses and his prophets. For your chart to be correct, it would need to reflect this.
If I could make an observation: I dont believe you are here to try to understand Christians. If you could see any logic in Christianity, you would be a Christian, and since you are not, why would you come here to ask logical questions of an illogical group. You are here to rub any inconsistencies you perceive in Christian doctrine in Christians faces. If it is illogical to say there is a God, so is it just as illogical to say there is not. There could be sense in saying I dont know (agnostic), but to say there is not (atheist) is to say that you know all, that there is no truth hidden from you- only a fool would make this claim.
What atheism and almost all religions suffer from, including Christianity, is worship of self because humankind suffers from worship of self. When someone worships themselves, their eyes shut to everything around them other than what feels good to them; truths and untruths do not guide their path; they are driven by their own desires and pleasure. If you wish to understand people who call themselves Christians, then stop looking at them as one group. Christians are not a consistent single-minded mass; there is no restriction on who calls themselves a Christian so you will get no coherent, cohesive answer. Christians are humans; if you want to understand them, simply try to understand mankind- understand yourself.
