> The former. Despite being a religion that is inherently and explicitly an "all or nothing" deal,

I think you leave out another option, something I have heard more than once. That is the viewpoint that the Bible is partially the revealed word of God and partially the non-divine viewpoints of those who wrote it down.

I have a heard a lot of people say they believe that, in general, the tenets of Christianity are true (Christ existed, was the son of God, died for our sins and was resurrected, acceptance of him as savior is the basis for salvation, etc.) but they find a lot of parts (particularly when it comes to some of Paul's teachings) the result of an individual author rather than God.

But I don't think Christianity is any more tailored to suit specific beliefs than other religions with divinely-inspired texts. It's just the most widespread and one of the oldest, giving it more opportunities to be changed by specific people and cultures, and it makes the differences among believers more obvious since we're so aware of all the sects.

Stephen