Lossing My Religion... Then Getting It Back In My Own Way

I was brought up as a Muslim. I have often said that I am a horrible Muslim because I barley practice it. I am a good person, I do not lie, in fact I cannot lie to save my life. I do not steal and I am friendly to everyone. Heck I even give to every homeless person I see. It has to be a sin to walk by one without dropping at least a dollar. (right?)
Throughout my life I have always been told that I do not know enough about my religion, or lack there of. I used to laugh at this remark because I feel as if I do know about Islam, I have just seen enough of the bad side of religion that I cannot in my own right call myself a member of any faith. I guess when you leave a country for being too religious and then come to one that is becoming more religious it kind of makes the whole idea seem odd.
I am now taking a class on the subject, called Islam in International Relations, and honestly as I am reading more about Islam it is becoming clear to me that I do know more about the religion than what I once thought. It is just that I made the choice not to practice, just like others have made the choice to.
I think that what sets people who do follow a religion apart from those who do not is that those who do are threatened by the fact that someone has made a choice so much different than the one they have. They find it weird that there are people in the world like me who feel that not going to church or any holy place will make me less connected to God. Whom by the way I do believe in.
The problem is that people cannot see the difference between religion and faith. You can have one without the other. I can be a Catholic, and have that religion in my life, go to church, eat the bread and confess my every sin and still not have faith or spirituality. Even Mother Teresa went something like 50 years without feeling God in her life, and I would never say that she had any lack of religion in her life. She was a nun how could she?
The same I think works with faith, maybe I feel this way because it is personal to me but I do not have a strong religious presence in my life, but no one can ever question how much faith I have. I believe in one universal God, I believe that all the prophets did exist and spread a wonderful message of love and unity within their own rights. I believe that everything works in the end. I believe in being a good person to all and I believe that good people do go to heaven. I do not feel that any of those thoughts are bad ones;however, I find it odd that feelings this way makes me somewhat a bad person in the eyes of those who are religious. Maybe it is because I believe in everything they do... I just do not have a religious title attached to how I feel about life.