What are the worst misconceptions you know of?

[lacktheknack]

That ex-theists left their theism behind because of emotional or psychological abuse of some form. I'm sure there are some, but most become convinced for primarily intellectual reasons that their beliefs are wrong, and therefore change them.

Ex-theists, yes, but not ex-theistic antitheists. Which these two admit to being.

You can be antitheistic without it being because of emotional or psychological abuse. If you firmly believe that religion, on the whole, is a force for suffering and social destruction, then you are (or at least probably are) an antitheist. There's nothing about coming to view religious perspectives as inaccurate and flawed through rational inquiry and intellectual assessment that precludes viewing religion as a social evil, rather than a social good.

You're still laboring under the unfortunate "people who used to agree with me, but then stopped, must've changed their views because of some emotional trauma" psychological crutch (or, rather, you appear to be, in this particular case). Stop that.

When the vast majority of atheists I talk to (in real life) stop whining that they received horrendous abuse from some offshoot of Christianity (usually a church with incredible blinders on), then I'll stop assuming that most antitheists received emotional trauma. I can only work with what I observe.

 

[Fidelias]

That all skinny, glasses-wearing nerds can't do physical labor.

Just because I love video games doesn't mean I can't work! I worked in construction Goddammit!

 

[emeraldrafael]

Snip

Its oka. And you be honestly surprised how many people ask me to do that. Mainly cause the one and only time I did it, I was joking and said give it a day or so and the next day we got some light drizzling out of no where.

 

[Imat]

That Socialism isn't inherently flawed, and that Communism works in theory.

Communism does work in theory...It relies on perfect humans to work, true, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work in theory, just that the conditions of the theory are nearly impossible to meet. You can't attack a hypothetical because it assumes something that isn't true. Most hypotheticals are based on an untrue assumption, which is why they remain hypothetical and not fact.

That violent people do videogames make.

 

[ThreeWords]

Inb4 "religion, nyuk nyuk nyuk"

Religion, nyuk nyuk nyuk

There, I said it. Happy now?

 

[Imat]

That college degrees will increase your income or get you a job. That commission-only sales positions are desirable forms of employment. That everything is going to be okay. That the government can help you. That cooperating with the police will better your chances. That plea bargains are the best deals you can get. That having children will save your relationship. That it's okay if your husband hits you. That it's okay if your wife hits you. That love is wholly unique, rare, and unattainable. That you aren't good enough. That they aren't good enough.

I think that about covers it for now.

For the most part a degree will raise your income...And raise your odds of getting a job in general, though perhaps not in any specific field. Some jobs require a degree, others pay reduced pay unless you work incredibly hard for advancement if you don't have one.

And commission-only can easily benefit the employee. You have to work harder for more money, but isn't that the goal anyways? In the end it pays for your effort, unlike wage-based employment which pays because you were there and probably did something that day/hour, with no consideration for how much you actually accomplished.

The government helps the citizens each and every day. It also hurts quite a bit financially, but the goal of government should be a deterrent from invasion, and most of the governments today are performing that role as well as they can.

 

[ThreeWords]

That England has a Queen.

God save the King!

Stop that.

That you can tell people what they can say or think

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

On topic, I would say that all people who play video games are/were/will become this man:

But I can hope to. I may be the only one who sees pure awesome coming from that picture. If that was me then it would be a glorious image.

Hitler was a genius. No, he could make a decent speech and that was about it, part of the speeches were Goebbels too. He was a lazy nationalist and that's about it.

 

[TheTaco007]

The idea that the word 'theory' in the context of The Theory of Evolution, or even Theory of Relativity is synonymous with 'hypothesis' or even 'guess'

Whenever someone uses that argument against me, I want to slap them in the face.

My usual comeback is: "Yeah, it's a theory in the way that the 'theory of gravity' is a theory."

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

"Handhelds are only for seven year olds."

 

[omicron1]

Inb4 "religion, nyuk nyuk nyuk"

Religion, nyuk nyuk nyuk

There, I said it. Happy now?

Had that not been quite possibly sarcastic, I would be the opposite of happy.

I do not know if you appreciated my point or not, so I will make it more clear. Please disregard if you understood my intent already, and were simply being funny: Every time there's a topic about something like this - misconceptions, falsehoods, untruths, problems - somebody always mentions religion. Not to discuss it in depth, or to provide reasons, but to bash religion, and possibly religious people. I was attempting to head this off at the pass by drawing attention to its tropelike nature.

The idea that the word 'theory' in the context of The Theory of Evolution, or even Theory of Relativity is synonymous with 'hypothesis' or even 'guess'

Whenever someone uses that argument against me, I want to slap them in the face.

My usual comeback is: "Yeah, it's a theory in the way that the 'theory of gravity' is a theory."

But on the other side of the line is one of my other favorite misconceptions: "Science == truth."

 

[ham and red bull]

1) people with small feet/hands have small penis'

2) everyone in europe can understand each other (chinese people believe this)

3)the virgin mary was a virgin

Thank god someone brought the third point up! It's actually mistranslated, it's supposed to mean: "Young woman Mary" or something of similar meaning! The "Virgin" Mary was actually 14 when giving birth to Jesus, which was perfectly fine at that time!

 

[the_bearpelt]

Ugh, I hate how people misunderstand Autism, especially Asperger's. I swear to god, you have no idea how many times I've heard, "This one character on a show is really socially awkward, but is an EXPERT AT THIS ONE THING." That is NOT what Autism is at all. That is a very small form of Autism, and it's a LOW-FUCTIONING ONE, not high-fuctioning like Asperger's, and it's called Savantism. A Savant is someone who can't even really take care of themselves and will always need a guardian throughout their lives, more or less, if nothing changes. Jesus Christ, I hate when people think all Autistics are geniuses at something. That's not how it works.

 

[dex-dex]

Also that bisexual people must have sex with both genders at least once in their lives, or that they crave threesomes, or that they're more likely to cheat.

MY GOD!
you have no idea how much this pisses me off!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

That misconceptions has three s's.

Hmm, surprised no-one pointed this out sooner. You must be the finest grammar nazi in the land then. Or at least the most devoted, take your pick.

Don't know which one's the best really... But it's spelled correctly in the OP, so I guess it was a bit of a snark.

 

[Trestin]

That Pagans, Wiccans, and the like are devil worshipers.(Now the devil worshipers do, but they do actually acknowledge a devil.)

 

[peduncle]

Theories have no real proof.

Well, this is true in one sense of the word. However, I hate it when it's used as an argument against SCIENTIFIC theories. If you do so, you clearly know nothing about science.

this, this, this, this, this, a thousandtimesthis!
it positively infuriates me when this happens

 

[Rekrul]

Autistic people are like rainman, since I started working with autistic kids, thats the number one question I get from people, "ah wow, are any of them like rainman?" "No."

 

[PurplePlatypus]

The misconception I hate? A few words.
Andrew Wakefield, fuck you.

 

[DaJoW]

That all brown people are Arabs. FFS, there's Indians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, etc.

You have no idea how much shit people give me in airports just cause I'm brown.

Also that all Arabs are Muslims. I think the biggest Muslim country in the world is actually Indonesia, and a good proportion of Lebanese people I know are Christian, not to mention that many countries people think of or constantly refer to as being in the Middle-East aren't in the Middle East. Afghanistan? Not part of the Middle East. It's Central Asia...

Cracked had a list of misconceptions about Islam where they mentioned that the number of Christian Arabs is about the same or more than the number of Jews in the world.

OT: Apart from stuff already mentioned, the only ones that really bug me are the ones I've heard said about Sweden. I heard a quote on a British show a while back about how Swedes were depressed bastards who live half their lives in darkness. Second part is true, but that goes for all general populations. That we have elks everywhere, that it's terribly cold all year, that the country is being taken over by Muslims etc. I once spoke to someone who actually thought we had a Polar Bear problem in winter.

Edit: Oh yeah, and "It's winter and it's cold, therefore there is no such thing as AGW".