What are the worst misconceptions you know of?

[Yomandude]

Everything newscasters have to say about videogames.
EVERYTHING.

 

[Xealeon]

That the American Civil War was about slavery and that the North was the justified side.

 

[queenorivers]

[deleted]

 

[feather240]

- That not believing in gay marriage or being opposed to gay marriage and being against gays are the same thing.

Its not?

I think it is!

Ladies and gentlemen, proof that it is a -very- common misconception.

Being against gays would be something like the Westboro Baptist Church, the 'God hates gays' lot, those people. The misconception that this is the same as simply not believing in gay marriage is equivalent to believing that Muslims who believe in the Koran kill non-Muslims ("If they attack you, you may kill them. This is the just retribution for those disbelievers." K 2:191). Aka, a big one.

No see here you're wrong about your definition of the term misconception. Yes someone pointed this out before but I'll reiterate. A misconception is a common misunderstanding of something which is a fact. Your statement is debatable and the use of the words "i think" mean opinion, therefore what I said isn't a misconception at all but an opinion.

Also denying someone's rights is a clear sign of opposition.

Since when is marriage a right?

 

[queenorivers]

- That not believing in gay marriage or being opposed to gay marriage and being against gays are the same thing.

Its not?

I think it is!

Ladies and gentlemen, proof that it is a -very- common misconception.

Being against gays would be something like the Westboro Baptist Church, the 'God hates gays' lot, those people. The misconception that this is the same as simply not believing in gay marriage is equivalent to believing that Muslims who believe in the Koran kill non-Muslims ("If they attack you, you may kill them. This is the just retribution for those disbelievers." K 2:191). Aka, a big one.

No see here you're wrong about your definition of the term misconception. Yes someone pointed this out before but I'll reiterate. A misconception is a common misunderstanding of something which is a fact. Your statement is debatable and the use of the words "i think" mean opinion, therefore what I said isn't a misconception at all but an opinion.

Also denying someone's rights is a clear sign of opposition.

Since when is marriage a right?

You misunderstand, I put it pretty badly so I don't blame you. Denying to be given the right to marry, not talking basic human rights here.

 

[Kashrlyyk]

....
Only an atheistic-normative perception results in the default position of 'no god', an objective view has no default position for complete uncertainty to return to.

No, the default position is always "x doesn't exist" if there is no evidence for the existence of x.

2000 years ago in Europe the default position was: "There is no America." And at that time that was the correct default position, because there was no evidence for America's existence. Therefore right now the rational default position is "There is no god.".

There was no concept of America, hence the automatic assumption. Objectivity has no -unproven- default assumptions.
If the universe created itself and time and the laws of physics and everything, and if this could be proven (obv red-shift; so sensible folk believe in the big bang & expansion, but not necessarily the rest of it) then a shift from monotheistic father-gods to a more hindu-like consideration of 'god as the universe' still makes sense.
Even with proof of expansion, there is no application of occham's razor in a field where there is no certain knowledge and no measurement possible.
Unless I've missed the point?

I was answering to this: "Only an atheistic-normative perception results in the default position of 'no god',", which is wrong. Since there is no difference between "There is not one bit of evidence for x." and "X doesn't exist." Another way to show why the default position is "X doesn't exist."

To that you replied with vacuous crap. Particular the "hindu-like consideration..." is such a huge amount of bullshit. You just "assert" without even the smallest explanation. And you made it perfectly clear you don't know what Occam's razor is.

And now I stop before I waste even more of my time.

 

[MetallicMonkey]

That anyone who is religious is automatically racist, closed-minded, and homophobic.
Also, that playing video games means you have no life.

 

[Arsen]

- Native American society was peaceful before the white man came and destroyed everything.
- That warfare is unjust in terms of offense.
- That wrongdoing isn't black and white. The circumstances are grey, the sin is still the sin.
- That believing in God means you are close-minded and "brainwashed" to believe since birth.
- That evolution and the whole "we evolved from apes" segment of it aren't two seperate philosophies.
- That evolution itself has no scientific inconsistencies that are beyond explainable.
- That many stories and scientific myths aren't wrapped around the story of "adaption" which has been termed as "evolution".

 

[moosek]

Schizophrenia isn't Multiple Personality Disorder. MPD is (obviously) a personality disorder, which is far more prevalent in women. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder.

 

[zhoominator]

That America is a country when its actually a continent.

Uhh, what about Canada and Mexico? Are they not part of the North America continent?

I think that was his point. Not sure, but thats how I read it:

ie, When people say 'America' they usually mean the United States of America, as opposed to either of the 'Americas'. I think that was what he was getting at.

Ah, that makes more sense... Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Yep, that's exactly it. I was born is South America, which, together with North (and, for some, central America) make up America, the continent. Therefore, technically speaking I'm an American.

Wait, so now there are only 6 continents? I was under the impression that North America and South America were seperate continents. I don't know, maybe we're just taught differently in the UK.

 

[Thespian]

One that really, really irritates me is a commonly used Christian argument, which is that Darwin's theory, or really just Evolution in general, is the idea that the Earth and all of it's inhabitants were created by "Chance".

Where people got this idea I shall never know.

 

[angelbe2232]

Simple question, what misconceptions do you know of that are just blatantly wrong?

Mine would be that all Muslims are terrorists. If that was the case then there would be, literally, a billion terrorists in the world. I seriously doubt that.

Your turn.

I lead you to the Wikipedia List of Common Misconceptions. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions]

Ahhh, he beat me to it.
Also, all bisexual/lesbians girls will make out with their girlfriend in front of you on command. This does not happen. EVER.
All dictatorships are bad. This really depends on the dictator.

 

[lightningmagurn]

I own guns and I play videogames. This means not only will I shoot up the school, columbine is my fault.

 

[angelbe2232]

Simple question, what misconceptions do you know of that are just blatantly wrong?

Mine would be that all Muslims are terrorists. If that was the case then there would be, literally, a billion terrorists in the world. I seriously doubt that.

Your turn.

I lead you to the Wikipedia List of Common Misconceptions.

Ahhh, he beat me to it.
Also, all bisexual/lesbians girls will make out with their girlfriend in front of you on command. This does not happen. EVER.
All dictatorships are bad. This really depends on the dictator.

Actually it does happen very rarely. And it's totally awesome... Wait, define "command"...

Snapping fingers, it happening.
Things like that.

 

[Small Dragon]

Parties that involve alcohol and testosterone stocked up boys is bound to go down well.. but don't we all see how this is going to play out?

 

[Declan Murray]

Anyone who thinks that Barack Obama wasn't born in america, or anything else like that (he's a muslim, he's a terrorist, he's a communist) that is just not factual

 

[AgentNein]

- That evolution and the whole "we evolved from apes" segment of it aren't two seperate philosophies.
- That evolution itself has no scientific inconsistencies that are beyond explainable.

I'd like some uhh, clarification on these two 'misconceptions' if you could.