I had an interesting exchange with another poster who made a comparison between religious beliefs and geographical location. To expand on this, my question is: why are you an American?
I don't know about you all, but I can choose to live wherever I want. I choose to be an American. But why? Well I like it here. It's kind of nice. I grew up here. My family and friends are here. My career is here. It's comfortable and familiar to me. If I had been born in another country, would I still choose to be an American? Probably not, to be honest. If I had been born and raised in, say Norway, I'd probably be just as comfortable settling there because it's what I grew up with and what I'm comfortable with. My choice to be American is heavily dependent on the choice my parents made when they raised me.
Back when I was going through my college courses, our instructors had more important things to deal with than creating seating charts. We had the choice to sit wherever we wanted. Why did I choose to sit in the same seat every day? Why did most of my peers do the same? Well, it's a good seat. I liked it there. It was comfortable and familiar to me. If I had sat in a different seat on my first day, would I make the choice to seek out this particular seat? Probably not. My choice to seek out that seat every day, or at least somewhere around it, was heavily impacted by where I happened to sit on my first day.
We're drawn toward what we're familiar with. That's not to say that we have no choice in the matter because we clearly do, and some people break away from those trends. But there are most certainly trends that accurately describe many. American parents tend to have children who choose to settle in America. Texan parents tend to have children who choose to settle in Texas. Most of the students in my classes had a tendency to sit in the same area.
I would argue that these tendencies go beyond physical locations and into ideological convictions. Christian parents tend to have Christian children. Muslim parents tend to have Muslim children. Atheist parents tend to have atheist children. Conservative parents tend to have conservative children. Etc. I don't believe that any of this is a coincidence. We have the choice to break away from any of this, but we're also drawn toward what we're comfortable and familiar with. Our choices are heavily dependent on the choices of our parents.
Had you been raised in a different country, speaking a different language, raised by parents with different religious beliefs, would you still choose to end where you are now with the same religious beliefs you hold today?
