I started a thread in Philosophy a few years ago about people labeling themselves Christian. It was met with all kinds of hostility and wrongful assumptions as to my motives. People get very touchy when you ask them to rationlize or explain reasoning for the insistence of being labeled a Christian.
But I think that the original question should be "Do you
claim to be a Christian". Because it seems to me that a great many (dare I say the majority) people claim to be Christian, but practice little or no dogma resembling Christianity. If I claim to be a pilot, but I don't know how to fly a plane, don't read any flight instruction manuals, and don't plan on going to flight school, am I actually a pilot if I
really really believe it.
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Personally, my identification with a religion ultimately depends on what I ACTUALLY believe AND practice. It doesn't have to do with an ethnicity or another form of identity, as it does in Lebanon--or even sometimes in America. I know of many people who would simply answer "Yes," even though it might have been years since they went to church, and in reality perhaps they are more agnostic or atheist than religious... because they want to "be" something, or they don't want the other person to think badly of them, or they simply don't know what to say other than "Yes, I'm a Christian," even if it's not really true. I find this response to be spiritually dishonest, in a way, but I know that I'm on my high horse when I say that... not everyone feels as cut and dry about religion as I personally do.
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I think you've hit it with both barrels. I think that there is an overwhelming urge to be part of a group. As well as the sense that (at least in America) that labeling oneself as a Christian instills an inflated sense of moral superiority. Many times that is the
only time that there will be any indication of someones Christianity, when they are condemning the morality of someone elses actions.
I think another reason why people instinctively answer "yes" is that their ego simply won't allow them to admit "I don't know".