“Perhaps these people would be happy if a god like Dionysus was worshipped instead. After all, he never hurt anyone, right?”
This sort of idea actually goes back to Nietzsche and his followers, who maintained that the pagan cults were robust and masculine and that Christianity weakened and pacified mankind. The Nazis then took it up as well, and Hitler (an admirer of Islam) often lamented that Germany was a Christian nation.
I blame that on the feminizing of Jesus that has occurred over the ages. Jesus is often portrayed as a weakling pacifist would never lift a finger in anger towards anyone, even though there is ample Scriptural text that portrays Jesus as a strong man who wasn't hesitant to use physical violence when He felt it was needed to get the job done.