The idea of free will is connected to any belief system you are emotionally attached to. Trying to explain what you believe in is like trying to tell someone everything you feel is true in a single conversation. You are as free as you believe you are.
That being said, I do think some things come to fact and truth. It is true that in a place called Egypt, There are pyramids, And that a group of people called Egyptians built these pyramids. Someone can believe they are Egyptian by becoming emotionally attached to Egypt or these pyramids, But if they are not genetically related to the descendants of Egypt, The fact is that they are not actually Egyptian.
Just like some people believe the earth is flat. There is no substantial evidence that the earth is actually flat instead of a spherical planet in helical orbit around the star we call the sun.
I try to look at religion as a genetic heritage. There are many people who do not practice the traditions of the religion they descended from. Liberal ideology lends to people who want to break away from their traditions. This creates variety.
It is good to learn about cultures you don’t belong to because it creates understanding.
It is bad to ascribe to cultures you do not belong to without understanding your own culture, And without understanding the culture you are appropriating as your own, Without understanding the culture itself, Because it creates a confused identity. There is a distinct difference between beliefs and cultural identity.
Being too attached to your cultural identity is also dangerous, Because it can cause hatred for cultures different than your own. America has this problem for several reasons. The creation of the labor class in the 1900s made a division between the upper class that maintains its cultural identity in a new American way, And the labor market where immigrants were categorized into different ethnic groups to segregate them into working groups who could focus on labor without too much cultural discord.
Learning your own culture is essential to escaping the labor class. Experiencing your own factual culture in real life teaches you how to identify with people who have the same background. Competition in the free market amping the labor class tends to force people to compromise their beliefs and identity in the name of capitalism.
Experiencing cultures different from your own first hand tends to create deeper understanding of those cultures in the labor market, And this understanding cuts through competition like a hot knife through butter. Misunderstanding cultural identity during competition is a sure recipe for hatred.
Belief is just an emotional attachment to a system of ideas. Identity is the truth behind someone’s life and how they became who they are.