Professor Ehrman's works have been helpful to me in learning more about the historical context of Chritianity and the Church. He has some excellent videos from The Learning Company as well as several books on the subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_D._Ehrman

It's pretty easy to realize that all the miraculous tales from the bible are false - unless you've been indoctrinated since you were a child. Ehrman's works helped me to understand how the collection of ideas that became the Christian canon, were able to take root and spread.

The ideology is far from static and has evolved over time to address challenges to its validity and acceptance. I find the history of Christian thought to be a far more interesting topic than Christianity itself.

In understanding the malleability of Christian beliefs over time, it establishes that the roots were not handed down from God and set in stone, but fit nicely into into a very human framework of an adoption of a set of memes that have evolved and become institutionalized over time.