What were Jesus and early Christians like?

[robvalue]

Having never been religious, it is really hard for me to try and get into the mindset of what it must be like to be a (religious) theist. To think that there's all this magic stuff going on everywhere, all these weird characters having cosmic battles, and that there is a god actually interacting with us. To me it sounds kind of like living in a cartoon that has been superimposed on reality. But for some reason I just can't see any of this stuff at all which is meant to be so obvious. And worst of all, that there's a pair of eyes following me around, judging every tiny action I make and keeping some sort of "sin" score up on a chalkboard somewhere. It kind of reduces life to a silly game, and the things that matter to people playing the game are of no relevance to people not playing the game.

Just some fevered ramblings. Maybe an ex-theist could comment on if I'm anywhere close?