Another form of this question might be “Aren’t you a Christian because you live in America?” — the questions express the view that my beliefs are the result of sociocultural influences.
Let me start out by saying just because you’re influenced to believe something, it doesn’t mean that “something” is necessarily fake. I try my hardest to influence my boys to believe eating vegetables and brushing their teeth every night are good for them.
On the other hand, my parents‘ belief or disbelief about God doesn’t make me a Christian. Sure, they can be positive influences (in my case, however, my father did not like it when I started going to church at the age of 18), but ultimately we all need to make our own informed choices after doing some serious thinking.
I often ask two questions to people who tell me I’m a Christian because my parents made me: “are you a non-believer because you’ve thought it through seriously, or because of your sociocultural background?” And, “how many books have you read on (non-)existence of God before you concluded God does not exist?”
Recommended reading to get you thinking on your own: The Evidence That Demands a Verdict (McDowell) and The Case for Christ (Strobel) — both are books by two individuals (one a historian and the other a journalist) who set out to disprove Christianity, but in the process came to a conclusion that Jesus was who he said he was.
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