Many Christians are stupid, uninformed, and inconsistent even within the framework they claim they operate within. I long ago stopped being surprised when their beliefs contradict their other beliefs, their actions contradict their beliefs, and their frameworks are riddled with enormous philosophical and logical errors. A rationalist who has debated and interrogated numerous evangelical Christians easily understands this. And as one converses with members of the Christian community in America, one realizes that they, whether correct or incorrect in their claims, cannot defend many of the popular beliefs they ascribe to. They merely assume them, which is at its most ironic when they claim that they derive their theological beliefs from sola scriptura--which is an impossible thing, of course. No knowledge can be derived from the Bible without logic, and thus no knowledge of Scripture can exist isolated in a vacuum with only itself.
What might a common example of these popular assumptions Christians make about the Bible be? For instance, many Christians seem to believe that Satan is the serpent who tempted Eve in Genesis 3, yet Genesis 3 says nothing of this. It merely refers to the serpent as "the serpent", not as Lucifer or any other title often reserved for Satan. Only in Revelation 12:9 is the serpent seemingly equated with Satan. But this belief is touted about as if it were readily clear in the Bible! I almost never see the actual Biblicality of this belief (or lack of Biblicality) acknowledged, and yet Christians all around me assume that the serpent in the Genesis account of the fall is Satan because they have been taught this by others!
Why is this? It is not because Genesis provides any definitive answer about the serpent's identity being a rogue angel. This is a perfect example of an idea that Christians repeat, and, when cornered in a demand for evidence, they probably won't have a chapter reference to conjure up, much less an accurate one. American Christians, in my experience, are quite gullible in this regard. They make certain claims about the Bible's teachings as if they were extremely clear, and yet they are far from obvious, or are even entirely false.
Ask Trinitarian Christians why they believe that Yahweh, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all three synonymous beings that are still somehow different--they likely won't be able to produce a single Scriptural reference, which often means that they don't even have a perceived Biblical reason to hold to this. This belief is logically and mathematically impossible, not to mention thoroughly unbiblical [1], but the point here is that it isn't uncommon to find upon asking that people don't even have a Biblical argument ready. They merely assume.
Another idea that they sometimes circulate is the contra-Biblical belief that humans literally deserve to be crucified and this is why Jesus died on the cross. Not only is this never once stated in the entire Bible, but Mosaic Law also utterly condemns crucifixion as an execution method [2]. It is entirely contrary to Biblical ethics and theology to claim that Jesus took "my cross" (and saying he died for me is not the same as saying he took my cross), as if crucifixion is Biblically deserved. At worst, this twisted idea can be associated with defenses of the ancient Roman legal system, which some sermons or messages about the death of Jesus actually include, or defenses of extra/contra-Biblical torture methods in the modern age.
Calling out Christians for stupidity is, unfortunately, extremely easy. Whether a Christian or not, a rationalist doesn't have to look far at all to find a Christian holding up as immediately apparent something that is not obvious at all or making a claim that contradicts the Bible, logic, or both. If Christianity is true, of course, these assumptions are not minor--they affect how people live, the answers they give to skeptics, and whether or not the claimers are aligned with reality. At the very least, they indicate systematic irrationality, which can so easily encroach from one part of a worldview to the next, amplifying the errors and consequences.
[1]. See here:
A. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-refutation-of-trinitarianism-part-1.html
B. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/09/a-refutation-of-trinitarianism-part-2.html
C. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-refutation-of-trinitarianism-part-3.html
[2]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2016/12/we-are-getting-what-our-deeds-deserve.html
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