We see how they change the gods from White to mud in the Hollyweird movies
It`s important to remember that man was busy evolving consciousness at that time, they were in a different stage of evolution, it was a time much older than Christianity. How else would primitive man explain thunder and fire ? We find similar scenes of Nostradamus trying to explain something he has never seen before, modern day weapons - animal forms spitting fire. I doubt that any Pagans today believe the myths of old, but they are in "tune" with them. These gods were Natural Forces personified.
Man would`ve thrived under the earliest religions too as evolution progressed. Look at the Roman Empire. What we do know is this - Christianity and the Dark Ages put back evolution by some time, in fact devolution was the order of the day, and Christianity played a huge role in the destruction of the Roman Empire.
Christianity gets applauded for being the religion upon which the democratic principles of the United States of America was built, yet the Senate stated in 1797 under George Washington's administration that : "The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." [Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, edited by Hunter Miller, Volume 2 (Washington : United States Government Printing Office, 1931) 349-385, and Peter McWilliams, Aint Nobody's Business If You Do : The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society (Los Angeles : Prelude Press, 1993) 153.]