Stereotyping: the process of judging a whole of people based upon a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of said people. It is based in ignorance and is not a positive quality for anyone.
There is a story about a ‘preacher’ in Oklahoma that filed a suit about a license plate that shows a statue of a Native American shooting an arrow into the sky to appease the rain god. The preacher claimed the plate was offensive. It was dismissed at the local level and the preacher appealed. The appellate court agreed with the lower court so he asked the Supreme Court to review it. The Supreme Court decided not to hear the case. I too think it is a frivolous suit that was probably filed to counter the frivolous suits that are filed by atheists, but who knows.
Immediately atheists started lumping all religious people together because the action of this one person and proceeded to berate and belittle people of faith. There were over 200 that I read that mocked God and people of faith because of this one story. I made the comment “Funny how many on here want to stereotype a whole religion for the actions of one. What would you do if it was slung back at you? Stalin was an atheist, so does that make all atheists communistic mass murderers?” That brought on another barrage from the haters.
If you stereotype you do more damage to your cause because of your ignorance. ~ ME