Whereas, for most Christians, our identity is only tied to our faith; absent the faith, there is no reason to identify with believing Christians, rather than merely one’s nationality, one’s ethnic group, etc. (I did qualify with ‘most’, though, because I do know that many non-religious ‘Protestants’ and ‘Roman Catholics’ in Northern Ireland still self-identify thusly and unfortunately accordingly dislike or even hate each other, alas; also, I’ve encountered non-religious ‘Christians’ of Sri Lankan background who wish to make their parents happy by marrying someone who also self-identifies thusly (rather than Hindu or Buddhist), whether or not either of them believe anything. But in both those situations, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka, that’s simple tribalism and/or colonialism at work, there.)

Is it just shared experience, and/or sense of high degree of persecution by outsiders, that inculcates the sense of “we’re a people” in secularist Jews, making them want to live amongst their own rather than assimilate completely into the cultures into which they may have been born, and circumcize their children even though not actually believing in the divine covenant thus symbolized? Or is it some residual level of religious belief, even though most would likely deny such?