Some “believers” profess belief out of tribal loyalty, yet at their core they are atheists. Others just cling to what’s familiar, or haven’t really thought much about what they actually believe, and why.

But it does seem to be possible for people to claim religious belief while at the same time accepting the findings of science — and not going mad in the process. I suppose it’s also possible that such compartmentalization of the mind may be evolutionarily advantageous.

I think your analogy to theists in general is an apt one. Many religious people do consider their religion to be a core part of their identity, rather than just one more idea they have. Also, in my experience anyway, many religious people are not choosing their religion based on rational evaluation of the evidence. Rational argumentation alone will definitely not be enough to change their minds.

I think Rokeach’s approach could be applied to all religious people by at least metaphorically “putting them in a room” with people of other religious convictions. Then hopefully they see — we all base our religions on these ancient scriptures that some regular dude once said was true. We all have strong emotional feelings that our religion is the one true religion. But we can’t all be right!