Generalizations and stereotyping on R&S--your comments?

Question

Just reading GratefulDead06's thoughtful answer to a question that started off, "Atheists...", he pointed out that we get a lot of this, "Christians..."
etc. etc.

Seems this is like racism, stereotyping whole groups, except questions in this vein substitute belief-groups for races.

IMHO, we have such a great opportunity on R&S for learning, understanding, discussion, seems a shame to muddy it up with this sort of shallow thinking.

Your thoughts pls?

Answer 1

I'm a bit disappointed by the quality of questions and answers here. In an unmoderated forum you have to expect some junk but the ratio of good to bad here seems low to me.
This could be a useful forum for exchange of ideas but I'm losing interest.

Answer 2

Agreed.
There is much to learn here
also much to ignore.

Two good points to remember
1) dont become easily angered by statements about your faith
2) dont purposely inflame or generalize.


1 expanded)
I think not becoming outraged by sterotypes is important. Don't flame back that dosent help. Just explain your point of view and state your belief group. Not all christians are fundamentalists. Not all muslims are suicide bombers. Not all athiests are immoral pigs. There are good people looking for purpose in every faith.

2 expanded)
State questions like "my understanding is that many christians ...x, why" Not "Why on earth do all you christians..."

Answer 3

You ask a valid question.

Not all non-believers who post to this Forum are hate-mongers. And some self-professed Christians seem to have left the love reservation when judging some of their responses. I will confine my remarks below only to those that act badly.

For both of these types of persons, it is interesting and sad to see how some persons will behave when hiding behind the anonymity of the computer. As an "old guy" I have occasionally acted irresponsibly in my youth, so I can relate, but only up to a point. It is also readily apparent these persons would be ashamed if they knew their parents, husband, wife, children, etc., learned of what they write herein. They do their loved ones a disservice and dishonor them with such behavior.

The questions and answers one sees in this forum all too often represent a triumph of flippancy over rigor. These flippant persons that post ad hominem, obnoxious, vitriolic items obviously have not formally studied the matters being asked for several years. Rather they enjoy mockery and proving that they really have no value to add to the answer and too much wasted time on their hands. (This is one of the reasons I moderate an advanced theology forum on the internet so I can filter out the nonsensical.)

The scriptures speak of such persons:

2Ti 3:1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
2Ti 3:2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
2Ti 3:4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
2Ti 3:5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

For these reasons "...God gave them up to dishonorable passions." (Rom 1:26)

The best solution I can recommend for you is to ignore their vapid questions or comments. It is very easy to scan past them and focus your eyes on the substantive and cogent items. If you spend enough time in this Forum the persons prone to ill manners become known quickly, enabling the ignoring of their wasted efforts even easier.

Yet virtually every unmoderated forum on the internet dealing with religious topics is full of unlearned or rude detractors. Atheism has become increasingly shrill of late, apparently hopping that saying something more loudly and more dogmatically will make it seem more credible especially to their own embattled supporters. Christians have nothing to fear from this hostile rhetoric, unpleasant through it may be. Hopelessly overstated arguments that once seemed so persuasive such as "science disproves God" have lost their credibility, becoming mindless slogans, where once they were cutting-edge ideas. It’s about preaching to the converted, shoring up a collapsing building with rhetoric rather than rigorous argument.

Likewise, the questions are sometimes poorly formed or are laden with underlying bias that tells the reader that no cogent and rigorous answer will satisfy the asker.

In fairness, I am frequently embarrassed by other Christians' answers. I feel a sense of dismay over the obvious lack of deeper learning that is evident by many of the responses. Most seem to want to just fire off whatever pops into their heads, streams of consciousness, etc., with no evidence of reasoned arguments and synthesis of the issues. Some of the questions are often shallow or just asked for point building or something.

Unfortunately, many very good Christians have not spent enough time trying to learn and understand the theologies of the faith. Many also lack formal training in biblical hermeneutics, so they may misunderstand the full meanings of the texts they frequently quote.

I am not advocating that everyone get degrees in theology, only that they spend some time studying materials outside the scriptures so that their faith will be solidly grounded.

The biblical doctrines tell us that all non-believers have their ability to properly reason clouded by the evil that entered the world at the Fall of mankind. Hence, atheist or whomever, I believe that those that are not among God's elect will be in an ever-present state of tension between what God has revealed to mankind and their desire to seek their own counsel.

Just keep asking questions in an objective manner and you will sometimes get useful responses. I try to answer questions so structured with reasoned theological, philsophical, and logical responses.

Answer 4

I don't see nearly as much stereotyping here as I see complaining about stereotyping, frankly.

Quite a few times I've seen something like this:

Person A: "Christians tend to say that...".
Person B: "Don't stereotype! How can you say that ALL Christians say that...?"

Unless a person explicitly says "All Christians say..." or asks "Why do all atheists believe...?", it's just silly to complain about that person overgeneralizing or stereotyping.

Answer 5

I try very carefully to word my questions and statements as "many" or "the vast majority of" etc. I think that most people don't really think "every single" christian is a fundy. It's just that we all get a little lazy sometimes.

Answer 6

i sincerely agree with you. people don't come to learn anymore, they come to make jokes and anger people. this column could be used for higher learning and understanding of each other.
i REALLY don't understand these people who are against islam. if they, instead of bashing, chose to ask about islam, they could really understand then that muslims aren't full of hatred at all and allah is the same god as the christian god.
and the whole atheist vs. christianity thing is really starting to get old. it seems that the same things are covered over and over, which are slurs against each other.

Answer 7

Look, we have to generalize. We don't have enough space to write "Christians who believe in the doctrine of a fiery Hell:". We need to write "Christians:" and hope that people realize we're smart enough to know that not all of them think that way.

Answer 8

Everyone who stereotypes should be thrown into a bowl of sauce and beaten with noodles.

Answer 9

It's a reflection of human nature.

Answer 10

I only serve sarcastic sandwiches at my restaurant.