re: 2 billion year old fossils of multicellular life forms discovered

Jesus's teachings included the "be saved or burn", but he didn't dwell on them nearly as much as those evangelical preachers you and I so abhor. The crazy thing is, the heaven and hell stuff didn't really bother the Jews so much. The Pharisees were so concerned with the law that they were blinded by everything else. The crucified him because he was a threat to their power. Jesus taught that adherence to the law was not as important as faith. Jesus believed in humble action rather than the whole "Be exactly our brand of 'good' or we stone you to death" vibe the scribes were jivin'.

The Pharisees only retained power at the behest of the Roman rulers. The Romans allowed them to stay in charge of the church with the hopes that they could help keep the rowdy, stubborn population docile. The Pharisees feared that if they couldn't contain Jesus of Nazareth and his huge throngs of followers, that the Romans would remove them and replace them or outlaw the faith entirely.

Jesus's message of Heaven and Hell resonated with the poor. The people who wanted to believe that there was something better than this world and that those who were wicked and cruel in this life would find justice in the next.