linguoboy wrote:IpseDixit wrote:Why not? Whether one likes it or not the religion of your people is part of your identity. I'm not Catholic, but I think that Catholicism will always be somewhat part of my identity and culture, in spite of the fact that there are a few things I do not really like about that religion.
Catholicism is still part of my cultural identity, despite the fact that I've been an atheist for nearly 25 years. You just can't erase the effects of your formative years that easily.
Religion has always been considered an important fact in defining ethnicity. Just look at the South Slavs.
A Jewish friend of mine once told me "gosh, you're really Catholic", just because I apologised three or four times for something, and to me it seemed quite a normal thing to do, for I was really sorry for what I had done. I guess that was one of the first times that I really realised that you can quit the Church, but totally quitting the habits and the mindset, well that's much much more difficult.
To say the truth, the Jews I've met (at least Israeli Jews) are like our polar opposite, they have no idea what "excuse me" and "sorry" mean and when they are supposed to use those.