That Jesus is God is the most fundamental foundational belief to Christianity. If you just want the "goodness" of Christianity, that's just moralism. If you just want the monotheism of Christianity, that's Judaism. If you just want an enlightened Jesus, that's Hinduism and Buddhism. You cannot remove deity from Jesus and still have Christianity.

The point of this discussion, then, is whether or not the deity of Jesus is just "lore" or if it's true. It's intriguing that Jesus could have easily let people perceive him as a good man, a popular teacher, or even an enlightened prophet. He never let it lie there, however, but instead pushed the envelope, upped the ante and claimed deity. That's what he wanted everyone who pondered his identity to have to contend with: He claimed to be God. If he was just enlightened, then he wasn't very enlightened, because he was lying about his deity. He was more like a jerk. But if he wasn't lying and instead really thought he was God, then he was quite delusional. Everyone has to struggle with the identity of Jesus since he claimed to be God.

I look at my Christian friends and see a lot of great qualities. They are wholesome and healthy with a great community behind them. Everything points to Christianity being something I should want to participate in. There is one pesky problem though. The divinity of Jesus.

I can't get around it! To say that Jesus was God and then to spend 50% of mass worshiping him for it is ridiculous to me. I wish I could have all the positives of religion without having to "believe" all the lore. I just can't lie to myself.

Now for my question: Is the dogma of Jesus structurally integral to Christianity. If we somehow removed the divinity of Jesus from Christian philosophy, would the rest of the community crumple without it. I'm happy to say Jesus is the founder of the religion and that he was a very enlightened dude, but I'm not comfortable with calling him god.

To boil it down further: Do religions need dogma?