What if Christianity never existed?

[robvalue]

Something far worse would have probably filled the void. Some hideous death cult spread by violence and fear. A devious arrangement where everyone is deemed to be in some way broken, and only this new cult can offer the solution. It would preach a pretense of love, while cutting down any opposition and silencing critics with extreme punishment. It would probably involve a blood bargain where an innocent is tortured and sacrificed as some sort of vicarious redemption.

It would have continued to have a stranglehold until some sort of secular system could hold it to account.