- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
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- 52,184
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- Location
- Washington, DC
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Recently the Mod Team undertook an evaluation of the Religious and Philosophical Discussion sections of the forum. Our goal was to see if each section, under the current rules and standard procedures, were facilitating the level and types of discussion/debate that was intended at the time of their creation. Additionally, we wanted to make sure the purpose of each section was clearly presented to the user base. Following that review we will be making a number of changes.
The "Religious Discussions" section will remain as it has been for some time. It is a section of the forum dedicated to discussing/debating matters of spirituality and theology from a foundational standpoint that is non-skeptical or critical of the notion of faith or the divine itself. We will continue to monitor the section for threads that do not belong, either because of their critical/skeptical nature towards faith or because of their decisively more political than religious focus.
The "Philosophical Discussion" section will be undergoing some slight alterations. The description of the section will be changing to better explain what types of discussions are allowed and disallowed. This section is meant for discussing a wide range of philosophical ideas; general questions regarding our world/existance, the works of Socrates, classical political philosophy such as Locke and Machiavelli, matters of faith and religion from a foundation open to skepticism, etc.
Discussions focused first and foremost on political topics will not be allowed. Threads dealing with modern political ideologies also do not belong and will be moved to the "Partisan Politics and Party Platforms" section. Additionally, attempts to derail threads by continually and/or singularly attacking the idea of skepticism within theological discussions may be met with action. While an individual confident in their faith may express such and why, it is counter-productive to this sections intent to have that poster derailing a thread by demanding others accept such views and refusing to engage in substantive back and forth debate.
Finally, the Mod Team has recognized an issue with the "Philosophical Discussion" section being a "catch all" for any religious thread that isn't focused on faith/spirituality from a stand point open to skepticism. While we envisioned theological debate occurring in "Philosophical Discussions" from a skeptical stand point, it was not our intent nor desire to have the large amount of religion related threads dealing with political/societal/cultural issues in a non-philosophical way to be dumped there.
To remedy this, we will be creating a new section titled "Religion and Politics". This section will be home to all threads that deal, positively or negatively, with Religion from a political, societal, or cultural context. Issues like the "war on Christmas", the threat of "jihad" to western culture, or the impact of atheism on a political candidate would all be examples of thread topics that would be appropriate for this section. It will be located under the "POLITICAL FORUMS" umbrella as its own section.
These changes will be occuring in the near future and we will give a clear indication when the new layout/guidelines will be officially going into effect. Thank you.
The "Religious Discussions" section will remain as it has been for some time. It is a section of the forum dedicated to discussing/debating matters of spirituality and theology from a foundational standpoint that is non-skeptical or critical of the notion of faith or the divine itself. We will continue to monitor the section for threads that do not belong, either because of their critical/skeptical nature towards faith or because of their decisively more political than religious focus.
The "Philosophical Discussion" section will be undergoing some slight alterations. The description of the section will be changing to better explain what types of discussions are allowed and disallowed. This section is meant for discussing a wide range of philosophical ideas; general questions regarding our world/existance, the works of Socrates, classical political philosophy such as Locke and Machiavelli, matters of faith and religion from a foundation open to skepticism, etc.
Discussions focused first and foremost on political topics will not be allowed. Threads dealing with modern political ideologies also do not belong and will be moved to the "Partisan Politics and Party Platforms" section. Additionally, attempts to derail threads by continually and/or singularly attacking the idea of skepticism within theological discussions may be met with action. While an individual confident in their faith may express such and why, it is counter-productive to this sections intent to have that poster derailing a thread by demanding others accept such views and refusing to engage in substantive back and forth debate.
Finally, the Mod Team has recognized an issue with the "Philosophical Discussion" section being a "catch all" for any religious thread that isn't focused on faith/spirituality from a stand point open to skepticism. While we envisioned theological debate occurring in "Philosophical Discussions" from a skeptical stand point, it was not our intent nor desire to have the large amount of religion related threads dealing with political/societal/cultural issues in a non-philosophical way to be dumped there.
To remedy this, we will be creating a new section titled "Religion and Politics". This section will be home to all threads that deal, positively or negatively, with Religion from a political, societal, or cultural context. Issues like the "war on Christmas", the threat of "jihad" to western culture, or the impact of atheism on a political candidate would all be examples of thread topics that would be appropriate for this section. It will be located under the "POLITICAL FORUMS" umbrella as its own section.
These changes will be occuring in the near future and we will give a clear indication when the new layout/guidelines will be officially going into effect. Thank you.
Closing for review.