I am doing my PhD in New Testament currently and not because I am a believer but because I find it interesting. In my opinion when one talks about religion, they aren't necessarily talking about faith. Faith is individual and it isn't faith that started the crusades or the reason why Constantine said he saw the cross in battle, or the reason why Muhammad began to "dictate" his visions. Faith is the individual ability to believe in something that can't be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and can be used for anything, not just a deity. Religion, on the other hand, and religious figures (Church fathers, Jesus, the gospel writers, Paul, monks, supposed bodhisattvas, sannyasis...anyone...) is a socio-political formation. Books were written to describe the present state of their world and who was in and out of the circle. When Judah was invaded and overtaken even though it was said it would always be governed by a son of David, writers and those in positions of certain literary (and therefore social and political power since only the elite could read) books were written using already authoritative myths to create NEW myths that would still maintain God's (read elite priests and kings) infallibility. Noah isn't the first figure to survive a flood (read Epic of Gilgamesh) nor will he be the last...
When Jesus came along, he wasn't the only one claiming to be a Messiah. There are documents that suggest he was one of many doing that. The gospels and the rest of the Bible are not to be read as a coherent document but as a library that hold artifacts of specific and competing Jesus traditions. I think the fault that staunch believers make is that they cannot reconcile history with their own indoctrinization and/or faith. They do what so many people before them have done: draw circles around themselves and decide who is in and who is out based on beliefs that are black or white. It is a contest for many. YOU MUST BELIEVE IN THIS in order to be saved. But what many church leaders are doing themselves is the same as what those who followed Mark's gospel (as an example of one community) were doing: writing certain rules and regulations so to create a community in which they are the head and to make sure that the community has movement and legitimacy. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with faith. A leader can not round up all faiths and create a community out of it because there would be no way for someone to lead that group. It isn't conducive for group and community formation. When someone tells me it is just a matter of faith, well, it shouldn't matter then if that faith is directed toward Jesus or toward Krishna,yet it does and that is because it isn't REALLY about faith it is about falling prey to this concept of what "group" is really true. Fear about being including in the right group because of fears passed on from the tradition most of us derive.
Sorry this was so long...I am in the middle of writing final papers and have been writing some of these same things...SORRY
When Jesus came along, he wasn't the only one claiming to be a Messiah. There are documents that suggest he was one of many doing that. The gospels and the rest of the Bible are not to be read as a coherent document but as a library that hold artifacts of specific and competing Jesus traditions. I think the fault that staunch believers make is that they cannot reconcile history with their own indoctrinization and/or faith. They do what so many people before them have done: draw circles around themselves and decide who is in and who is out based on beliefs that are black or white. It is a contest for many. YOU MUST BELIEVE IN THIS in order to be saved. But what many church leaders are doing themselves is the same as what those who followed Mark's gospel (as an example of one community) were doing: writing certain rules and regulations so to create a community in which they are the head and to make sure that the community has movement and legitimacy. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with faith. A leader can not round up all faiths and create a community out of it because there would be no way for someone to lead that group. It isn't conducive for group and community formation. When someone tells me it is just a matter of faith, well, it shouldn't matter then if that faith is directed toward Jesus or toward Krishna,yet it does and that is because it isn't REALLY about faith it is about falling prey to this concept of what "group" is really true. Fear about being including in the right group because of fears passed on from the tradition most of us derive.
Sorry this was so long...I am in the middle of writing final papers and have been writing some of these same things...SORRY
at me going into a hip hop rant! 
