Were other European religions better than Christianity?

[Epimethean]

The games seem to have had mixed beginnings, both superstitious and martial, but what they became under the emperors was not an extension of their religious nature. The dominant reason for the decline of the games was economic. Suggesting it was christianity is a favorite pet of christians, but really, that is funny, because gladiatorial combat persisted longer in the eastern Roman empire than in the west. Set that aside and we know that christians were not peaceful people, as their campaigns against muslims, witches, and any other thing different from themselves proved. Any hand "Telemachus (even his name suggests a historical joke was being made)" had in stopping the combats was incidental to their cost and not due to the "benevolent" nature of christianity. The fact that the games were predominantly held during the Saturnalia, and that festival's ultimate displacement by an interloper called christ and his birth festival may be seen to be deliberately ironic.