Quote Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube View Post
Depends on your type of faith, honestly. Many christians take the view that man is a flawed creature, and that the bible itself is a flawed product of man, while the exploits and teachings of jesus himself (which makes up a relatively small portion of the bible anyway) suggest that if you're pure of heart and intention god will judge you accordingly. Its not so much about following the specifics as it is trying to 'do what jesus would do,' if you will.

That's not all christians, obviously, but many that you call 'casually' religious are in fact just skeptical of the establishment, but not the message.
But that's just it. Even if we eliminate everything from Christianity except the teachings of Jesus, the vast, vast majority of Christians do not even attempt to emulate some of his more inconvenient messages, such as those regarding the accumulation of wealth for example. If Christianity was anything more than a convenient moral code in which to indoctrinate children and maintain social ties, there would be no rich Christians, and none who would try to be rich.