Is it possible to be christian without being religious?

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Any silly far-fetched excuse is a good excuse for "holy" humanity to create a war and kill masses of people, that includes religion.

A lot of wars get backing from the religious clergy.

Was the comedian Bill Maher by any chance?

It was Richard Herring.

Who are the most avid promoters of military action? Evangelical Christians. If you don't believe me, tune into an American Family Radio station and listen to some of their shows.
I will say that Jesus really said nothing that people didn't know already. He taught the Jewish law. People were practicing the golden rule long before Jesus said it. Some other things he said were either nonsense or never came true. For example, people don't get whatever they want when they pray in Jesus' name. I doubt Christians are able to toss mountains into the sea.
I also don't see Christians playing with black mambas, putting cyanide in their morning coffee, or giving all their assets to charity. I think one of the worst things that occured was the association of thoughts with actions. That is, thinking lustfully of a woman is the same thing as having sex with her. Nonsense. I read about this same idea in the book 1984, which is described as "thoughtcrime". I have always had difficulty with a person who demands we place him above our family members. He even tells us to hate our families! Really, Buddha makes more sense.

I find it hard to even imagine where you got these ideas, but then of course I am from the UK.

Not my ideas. These come from the gospels.

I'll bite.

I think the church has pretty much spread so many lies when it comes to real Christian spirituality that I think Christians that are real should just meet outside of church and form their own family without organized beliefs or rituals. I mean think about it? Abstinence wasn't an issue until people mistook Paul's writing about sexual immorality. No one met in a church on Sunday, they met in eachother's houses. Jesus turned water into wine and yet some Christians won't even touch alcohol. Christians gasp when you say "Damn" or "crap" but Jesus pretty much called Pharisees sons of hell. And religion starts many wars.

Religion kills. Dependence and relationship with Jesus saves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed

Many christians in the US are already leaving the organized churches and forming house groups. The de-emphasis on christian sacraments has been happening since the sixties. Many "seeker" churches do not have communion, baptism or display a cross. Some churches are dropping their denominational labels. Baptists are notorious for this.
I'm not sure where this idea originated that christianity is about a "relationship" and "religion" is bad. Christianity is clearly a religion. In spite of the thousands of christian sects there is still a common orthodoxy, common practices, and a common dogma. Religion derives from the Latin "religiare" or " to bind together". To call a faith a religion is hardly perjorative.
When one reads the gospels, especially the gospel of John, we discover that Jesus frequently condemns those who don't agree with him. He insults his enemies, makes claims that have never happened, and is frequently condescending to his own followers. He also never fulfilled the messianic prophecies taught by Judaism. The majority of Jews were rightly exasperated by him and rejected him as a false prophet. I don't agree that they should have had him killed but the laws of Moses are clear that false prophets were to be executed. I'm not convinced that a relationship with Jesus is profitable or desireable.

No

This is true. Some of the "awkward bits" in the Bible are not in the Old Testament, but are actually quotes and actions attributed to Jesus. However, these quotes and actions seem very "out of character" for the person who issued the Sermon on the Mount.

I can only assume that either the original story had a nice Jesus, and a nasty person added in the nasty bits, or the original story had a nasty Jesus, and a nice person added in the nice bits. Either way, I like the character Nice Jesus.

Due to some things in life Ive been spending some time around hardcore christians lately(I met a missionary that was kinda cool/she introduced me to her friends/they claim to understand that I have no wish to become a christian and Im just trying to understand christianism better).

One of my latest acquaintances is someone thats finishing his studies to become a pastor(just so you have an idea I mentioned that I may get a bible and do some reading instead of just taking their word for it and he gave me his phone number and said we could hang out to discuss any questions that may come up anytime).
Anyhow I was talking to him a few weeks ago and he asked me if I was aware of the path to salvation.
I replied that there are several different ways of approaching god and each person has their own way. Just because you cant give money to the church it doesnt mean that you are a bad person and giving money to the church wont free you of your sins/make you a great person if other actions dont corelate.

He explained me that according to the bible you just have to accept god as your saviour and mean it/try to become more like him. Whatever else you wish to do and how you wish to express that youve accepted him as your saviour is entirely up to you.

I attend an older church that recently started making a push to do a lot more "Book of Acts" kinds of things including meeting in houses instead of Sunday evening worship. What we found was that the city-wide group meetings had over 4 times the numbers in attendance than the conventional evening worship format.

Organization has been part of Christianity since its inception, and the only point in organized religion is to avoid chaos. It does help a body of believers to have a unified faith, a common ground from which to grow. And those are basic things, such as an agreement on who Jesus is and the role of the Bible. People find strength in numbers, hence the benefit of corporate worship and the need to establish order in meetings.

What is harmful is when ritual or personal preferences become the sole purpose of meetings and daily practice rather than genuine adoration of God and living out Jesus' teachings. The true heart of Christianity in practice is a focus on doing the will of God. I'm ok with rituals that point the way to God. I'm not ok with rituals that exist for their own sake.

One thing that is really destroying Christian churches right now is infighting caused by disagreement on the choice of music and style of worship. If you only go to church for all the formalities and affluence, or if you just want to attend a rock concert with Christian lyrics, you've lost sight of the pupose of the worship service. I think organized worship works as long as the congregation maintains focus on Who is really the most important, above and beyond format and style.

Religion for its own sake is possibly the greatest threat to spreading the faith.

Jesus saves, Moses invests. Followers of Jesus buy at retail. Followers of Moses buy at wholesale.

ruveyn