You acknowledge that the Apostles all knew Jesus and walked with him while he was on earth, but you deny that Paul could have had a similar experience with the risen Jesus and been used by God to further the knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith? Since we know from the writings OF those other Apostles that they believed the claims Paul made and they whole-heartedly approved of his ministry and supported his work, then how is it that you - two thousand years removed from the scene - can declare you know what Paul was up to and it was ONLY to gain power and prestige and not from a sincere heart and divinely-ordained mission?
You don't even believe in God much less who Jesus was, so why are you arguing with Christians about Paul's place in the Christian faith? If it was Thaddeus, for example, that God used to write the majority of the New Testament and he said the same things God led Paul to write, would you be dumping on him instead? Is the real reason you don't like Paul because he said some things you didn't like hearing? Things that annoy or bother you concerning women back then? Or is it really that you think Christians are fools for believing what we do and this was a good opportunity to express it?
Vladimir99 and others have given you some pretty good arguments that dispute your ideas about Paul and his motives and you barely acknowledge them. I hope you understand that it is not you specifically that is being criticized here but the false and illogical ideas you have expressed. I hope you will thoughtfully reconsider what has been said to you.
There is a limit to how specific a reply I can make to you because I have been forbidden to discuss atheism on this thread. So I will limit myself to observing that those who knew Jesus during his lifetime, knew Jesus. People who claim to have been visited or spoken to by God are simply in another category completely. We have dozens of them, and many times they are able to convince others that they are telling the truth. Mohammed has apparently convinced millions. That people who make this claim can convince others means nothing.