Interested in people's thoughts about how belief is supported by identity and vice versa.
Some definitions:
I'd rather not get sidetracked into discussions of what belief means, so belief for this thread just means what you happen to think is true.
Identity - for this discussion everything that contributes to what you think about the world, where you were born, what your parents believed, your education and so on.
Some basics:
Where we are born clearly has an influence on what religion we might tend towards. I'm more interested in questions of identity and belief on a more personal level. To what degree do you think people are influenced by the beliefs of their parents, and by their level of education, and in what way? What kinds of things reinforce or weaken those beliefs?
1) I think people are influenced by their parents belief-sets to a large degree just by being surrounded by it from birth. Because they were intimately taught it from a young age, memorized it, shown it as a lifestyle.
2) I don't think education has a large impact on faith, although those with a higher education may have different opinions on things such as how evolutionary processes were a part of, and built into God's creation, versus those who are less educated.
3) Society at large can serve to reinforce someone's belief, and it can cause people to question it. Those who question it often are stronger for the questions through the answers they find.
There are many different Christian denominations. While there are some shared beliefs there are also varying degrees to which people firmly believe their denomination's particular teachings are the right ones. No church teaches 'only the bible' - every reading of the bible is an interpretation, and no church's teachings represent some universally objective true reading of the text. This being the case, what are the degrees of relevance of identity with the group vs conviction through argument or understanding?
I'm not sure I understand what exactly your asking here.
To me it seems that people often identify with a particular denomination or set of doctrines for reasons wrapped up in their identity and sense of self, or because of some personal experience, and that arguments used by that denomination are employed more as a form of reassurance or to emotionally bolster something the person has already accepted as true
I can't say for me personally that I agree with you here. For me, my identity is wrapped in Christ, and the denomination is secondary to that. I don't feel tied to the denomination, it's just the group I most agree with, what I'm tied to as an identity, is Christ.
Finally, when belief in something is shaken, how does this reconfigure a person's identity? E.g if people sideline doubts to maintain their identity as part of a group, or where a person undergoes a radical change in how they view the world and their own place in it.
As someone who converted to Christianity (not born), I can say it turns everything upside down. It's major. It takes a while to feel settled into the new set of beliefs and requires much careful study, while at the same time, your forced to do so rather quickly, because unknowns frequently occur in the beginning that must be well understood. So it's a race to learn and understand everything fast.
I don't know how to describe it outside of that really, other than these are major changes and your entire worldview changes, turning all you previously believed on it's head.
In reading some of the posts in the thread it is perhaps, that I misunderstood your entire line of questioning.. I apologize for this, you can probably just ignore me..