Religions, just like everything that's human, have got good and bad things (except true love, because true love is always good - true love is not passion or possession). I personally don't like or follow any religion, and believe that "God" do not depend on any of these human inventions. (I also feel fine with Buddhism/Taoism)
This is where the hard part starts, especially for folks who don't have any background in religion.
It's reasonably easy to see that there is a God. All one need do is look at the marvels of the universe around himself. The trick is figuring out enough details about God to see what pleases Him, or to see if there is any point in finding out more about Him.
The religions of the world are run by people, as you say. Some of the people are good, some aren't. Some are sincere, some are out to make a quick buck off you. The quest should be to find out about the God of the universe.
You can fight off people. If the people of a religion join together to attack you, you can join others who are like-minded as yourself, and protect your group.
The quest should be to find out what God says. Why? Because anyone strong enough to play with the "mechanics" of the universe is someone I would NOT want to piss off. I can fight people who attack me. But what strength would I have against God if He decided to attack me?
