Why do people make assumptions about others' questions?

Question

I recently posted a question and it proves my point quite succinctly (see link below)
I never once brought up christianity, and yet many christians began inferring that I meant their belief system. This happens regularly.. people tend to make quite a few assumptions in reading a question.
Wouldn't it make more sense (and bring about better understanding) to simply take the question at face value?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ao3Tf19p3mYkuhOkhzmhzsDd7BR.?qid=20070318132050AA2Xmnh&cp=2&tp=2#all-answers

Thanks to those of you who were honest enough to admit we all make assumptions.. I'm guilty too.. hopefully, we can try to be more cognizant of that and try to ask for more details if we're unsure.

Answer 1

You make a good point. I am certainly guilty of making assumptions in reading a question. I am also guilty of being on the defensive most of the time regarding the religious and their beliefs. It is one of my many flaws.

Answer 2

Since that is the god I serve, I thought it would be nice that it be added... and I have to admit, yes I make assumptions.

As you are the Minister of Religious Tolerance, I thought you may have wanted to expand your grouping a bit .... considering that there are really two groupings of beliefs once you use the word non. Nonchristian implies all that is left is christian, much like using the term nonwhite....

Answer 3

by addressing your questions to all atheists and non-christians, there's hardly anybody left out of it BUT christians. Since your question implies that the atheists and nonchristians are free of guilt and fear, it also implies, or at least provokes assumptions, that the group left out of your question is the one that must, logically, be plagued by guilt and fear.
Next time, if you don't want to be torn apart by rabid fanatics, word your questions more carefully.

This aside, I agree with the message you were trying to get through with your first question. Unfortunately it is in people's nature to always see themselves as the persecuted ones, and therefore make assumptions. Especially if their religion force feeds them this attitude day by day.

Answer 4

Many people make assumptions about each other and each others beliefs. It doesn't surprise me that it happens with the questions too. I tell people i want to promote peace as a way to follow the example of Christ and get told to stop shoving my religion down people's throats. I said I would follow His example , not that others must follow mine. It happens everyday around here and it is not any particular belief system that owns the copyright. Peace be with you

Answer 5

And so I assume you want people to just answer the question.
My assumption is that you have little chance of that in here.
People always tend to assume things because they have assumptions about everything and few, if any, actually read the question completely anyway.

Same goes for answers. I answered a question and the asker gave me all sorts of flak about my answer. Later I looked at her chosen best answer and it said almost exactly the same thing I did. Go figure.

Answer 6

You're not really asking this, are you? People tend to see the world from their own perspective. It's rather selfish, I'll admit, and tends to make us infer things without even realizing it. I have one friend who often will get put out with me for calling something bad when I had no such thoughts in my head at all. She added them without realizing it, in her own mind, to what I'd said and therefore thought I'd said that; she reacted to what she'd heard rather than just to what I'd said. People do this. They call it normal, too. It's not just on Answers, by any means.

Answer 7

Because for many questions similar to yours, the asker has ulterior motives for asking the question. (You did; it's obvious by the way that question was worded.) In that case, it's appropriate to respond more to the unstated assumptions than to the question itself.

If you want your questions to be taken at face value, you have to be honest in the way you ask them.

Answer 8

If you go into a restaurant and ask for something to eat without being specific, you may be disappointed with what you end up with.

If you want a better answer, be more specific with your question.
=)

Answer 9

Frequently 'cause the question's posed poorly. For yours, the question doesn't really ask what the text below expounds upon - the question's general, but the text below is specific to a single query. Do you want a "general" answer, on one related to this link? And why a link when simple inline text would save people time?

And in your initial query, you provide no guidelines about what you mean by fear, guilt and shame. I mean, except for times when I screwed up, I don't view these three words as repres- entative of "life". Life's *always* amazing, even when it's bad.

Answer 10

yeah, I was going to say we all do this. I look at questions, I look at the profiles, answers and questions of people that ask those questions, and I still make complete assumptions.