In my conversations with people, I am amazed by all the reasons people have for following certain religions: "Jesus Christ will give you peace in your life," "Judaism meets my spiritual needs," "Meditation helped me be a better person," "Satanism is for people with brains," "I just try to follow my heart," and many more.
One guy I talked to said, "I shouldn't matter if what we 'believe' is true or not, as long it helps you be happy and a better member of society."
Frequently, people will cite the ancient Indian proverb about the blind men and the elephant, (one blind man feels the trunk and says "an elephant is like a snake." Another blind man feels the leg and says "an elephant is like a tree" and so on and so forth...) saying that all religions are trying to describe God, but every religion itself is incomplete and needs to learn from others in order to have a more informed view of God. There is some truth to this. However, three religions on earth make the claim that the elephant already told us what he is: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. So disregarding these, all other religions are indeed blind and groping around a dangerous animal.
If we are honest, we will realize that most religions (though not all) teach very similar points of morality, such as don't kill, don't steal, and help those in need. This points to the fact that there may be something transcendently unifying in all of us humans--perhaps our creator?
All this is to say, Christianity is not a self-help religion, although it does help people. Christianity is about being restored to God because of the life and death of Jesus. My sins and your sins are acts of treason against our Creator, and Jesus paid the death penalty in your place.
Christianity is not about man's attempt to find God, it's about God's attempt to find you and rescue you and make you into something new and beautiful!
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