Well said Katie, do keep posting here and pleased to meet you!
it's quite interesting - there's a sort of parallel i see between aa and christianity in that regard.
My mum was a preacher, and along the way began to question her faith. She learned about evolution, questioned things such as her mum dying of parkinson's disease, and learned more about the fact of the bible not actually being history.
She got to a point where she was unsure about what god meant to her and saw the bible as fable, and things like the virgin birth as a metaphor (which as you probably already know only came from a mistranslation of "maiden")
she was quite surprised when i told her she wasn't actually a christian. Bottom line is, if you don't accept the virgin birth and christ's resurrection, you're not a christian!
There's something.... static about religion. It seeks to provide answers and is extremely resistant to change or questioning.
It is almost exactly like the groupthink you describe - very orwellian!