I just want to make clear that the theist is not at all innocent or sincerely caring about the atheist. They are already being impolite, uncivil, and unethical by the very act of making and expressing their assumptions about the atheist.
In saying that, you are making some pretty nefarious assumptions and conclusions as well about the motives and intentions of that particular theist, who you criticize for doing the same about you.
No, I am drawing logical inferences based upon the facts of their specific actions combined with basic facts about human being and reality more generally. The logically inherent assumptions behind their statements are by definition impolite and uncivil. And if they are an adult human being, then there is a 99.99% probability that they are aware that there assumptions may be wrong, and yet hold them anyway despite lack of evidence, which logically means they must be engaging in deliberate suppression of honest evaluation of those assumptions, which is unethical.
IOW, I am not making a priori assumptions about them. I am drawing a posteriori Bayesian inferences about them based on evidence.
In their mind, you are being impolite, uncivil, and unethical by your very act of making and expressing your anti-god or anti-religion views that they hold so dear to their heart.
And that reveals the stark difference. They find me and all non-believers unethical merely for holding a different belief than them, which shows how selfishly authoritarian their "morals" are. And since such authoritarianism objectively causes tangible harm to people, it means their "moral" system is itself a product of immorality. In contrast, I have a non-authoritarian moral system based upon objective harm caused by actions. So, I do not infer they are immoral simply for holding a different belief than me. I only infer their immorality from their actions that cause harm to others, and one such action is their assertion that others are immoral simply for holding a different belief than them.
In addition, I do have to very much disagree with your statement that they are not at all innocent or sincerely caring about the atheist. Many of them mistakenly believe we are hellbound, for instance, and feel tremendous stress and anxiety over it. They may react by trying to proselytize and witnessing to us, and it may even lead them to depression.
They are the one's who chose to believe that and they go to lengths to protect that belief from honest thought, because they want it to be true. We know this b/c we know they have no evidence it is true and the modern world exposes virtually adults to information that makes such a belief impossible to maintain without effortful suppression of honest reasoned thought. And such effortful dishonesty is motivated by a biased desire to want something to be true, even if it isn't.
That proves their lack of sincere concern for atheists. Their proselytizing is self serving. They do it to give their own lives meaning and to manufacture an identity as a noble savior. They choose to maintain beliefs that various people will be punished by the God they choose to believe in, in part so that they can then play the hero for trying to save those people from the hell they created for them.
It is the same for theists who view homosexuals as damned. The adage "love the sinner hate the sin" is dishonest nonsense. In the face of obvious reasons to doubt it, they choose to maintain belief that gays are damned. That is the opposite of loving and caring. Then they pretend to care about the fate of gays, b/c that makes them seem like a selfless martyr.
All that really means is that they were too immorally selfish to ever bother being honest about it, and in most cases expended great effort to actively suppress any doubts or rational thoughts about it which naturally arise when one is maintaining beliefs that lack direct evidence. They are a human and thus they know that people engage in self delusion and bigotry. Thus, from there perspective as a human, they did have knowledge and reasons to doubt their bigoted assumptions. But they chose to willfully suppress those reasons out of selfish desire to protect their worldview at the expense of others.
Isn’t that a human trait though, not something exclusive to some groups and others are exempt from it? We all have preexisting biases, and those manifest by treating other groups excessively favorably or unfavorably.
Yes!, everyone is prone to bias, but also everyone is capable of examining their biases against reasoned analysis. Which is exactly why every person is aware that humans (themselves included) are prone to do this. And that is why, contrary to your prior excuse for theists, every person has knowledge that gives them reason to doubt their assumptions and beliefs, and thus reason to engage in critical examination of those beliefs. This makes people personally responsible for their beliefs, and when those beliefs impact others, it makes people morally responsible for whether they have subjected those beliefs to critical reasoning to avoid undue harm to others.
If the belief is something that is implicit and the person rarely thinks about it, then it's understandable that they haven't examined it. Or if the belief has minimal real world impact that could harm others, then it doesn't have direct moral implications about the believer. But that is clearly not the case if a theist is pointing out the lack of morality among atheists or gays, or even just acting and voting based upon such beliefs. Such beliefs, if unexamined, do reflect a self-serving moral failing. And such beliefs cannot be held in the modern world if they are ever honestly examined.
The dishonesty and effortful suppression of reasoned thought required to maintain such beliefs exposes the fact that such beliefs are things the person desires to be true, so much that they make sure to never doubt it. When those beliefs are about others moral worth or things that impact how others are treated, those deliberately irrational beliefs represent immoral and uncivil acts of willful ignorance.
And of course, those theist beliefs are not the only ones that reflect immoral selfish self-delusion. Everyone is likely guilty of it to some degree under various circumstances. That doesn't change the fact that it's unethical, and that virtually all beliefs in the modern world that non-theism (or homosexuality) is against God are themselves unethical and not merely innocent acts of kindness and concern.
