The Obsession with Discussing the Supposed Rudeness of Atheists

[Kingpin]

Stereotyping or generalizing people is always bad.  People are individuals and may choose to label themselves under certain banners, but that in no way gives anyone the right to assume what they believe or how they behave without getting to know them personally.

You might want to rethink that.  What you are saying is, when someone labels himself a theist, you would be wrong to "assume" that the person believes in a god.  Of course, it is not an assumption at that point.  It is just taking the person at his word.  If someone is a stupid moron who does not know how to properly label himself, that is a failing of his, not of the people who initially take him at his word.  I will grant you, however, that there are quite of few complete morons who label themselves inaccurately.  Of course, if they are that stupid, when they directly tell you, "I believe X," you would be equally wrong to suppose that you could count on that being true, since the person clearly has no clue what they are talking about.

I will grant you that certain assumptions can be made depending on the self attributed label.  I'm a theist, so it is safe for you to assume I believe in God, because if I didn't then as you said I would be stupid for labeling myself as a theist.  But if I identify as a theist, you cannot assume what branch of theism I follow.  I identify as Christian.  This gives you more info to glean assumptions from, for example, you can assume I believe in the God of the Bible, that Jesus Christ lived, died and was resurrected.  Nothing really beyond that since there are "Christians" who believe all are/will be saved, that only the elect will be saved, pre-tribulation, post-tribulation, no tribulation, original sin, no original sin, old earth, young earth, creation, evolution, etc.  You could assume, but you might be incorrect.

I said this in the other thread as well, it's when people get told what they believe by someone else is when they tend to get upset.  I always try to ask what someone believes about something I wish to discuss before asking and assuming I know what they believe based on how the identify and label themselves.