a suggestion

Do you think a change to the structure of the religious forums here would be:

  • positive

    Votes: 6 30.0%
  • neutral

    Votes: 4 20.0%
  • negative

    Votes: 10 50.0%

  • Total voters
    20

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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I am interested in the previous debates on whether or not there should be a forum, or several forums for religions other than christianity.

As far as i know, currently we have a general spirituality and philosophy forum, and a specific forum for christian discussion. Admittedly christians are the majority religion in canada, but to be truly representative a few changes might be necessary. Possibly one thread for islam, one for hindu and one for others? or a specific christian and specific non-christian forum each? One major advantage I can see is that it might prevent the hijacking of every christian thread by non-believers and other religious denominations, turning every detailed debate of the issues of christianity into a God or No God debate.

I am aware that some debate has already been made on this subject but I havent found any polite, fact-related discussion. This is what I am seeking now, and this is why I beseech you please not to turn this into an argument. Please just state your opinion on the proposed changes and NOT on each other's religion or lack of it.

I am also aware that the logical thing to do would have been to start the forum with no specific religious forums so that everyone was grouped into the non-specific forum, but at this stage it seems silly and even a little rude to suggest we delete the christian forum, since it's already there and full of lively debate, deep spiritual statements and a lot of scripture which I feel is very valuable to some of us.

Please don't fight over this. It's just a humble suggestion, borne out of curiosity.
 
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m_levesque

Electoral Member
Dec 18, 2006
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I am interested in the previous debates on whether or not there should be a forum, or several forums for religions other than christianity.

As far as i know, currently we have a general spirituality and philosophy forum, and a specific forum for christian discussion. Admittedly christians are the majority religion in canada, but to be truly representative a few changes might be necessary. Possibly one thread for islam, one for hindu and one for others? or a specific christian and specific non-christian forum each? One major advantage I can see is that it might prevent the hijacking of every christian thread by non-believers and other religious denominations, turning every detailed debate of the issues of christianity into a God or No God debate.

I am aware that some debate has already been made on this subject but I havent found any polite, fact-related discussion. This is what I am seeking now, and this is why I beseech you please not to turn this into an argument. Please just state your opinion on the proposed changes and NOT on each other's religion or lack of it.

I am also aware that the logical thing to do would have been to start the forum with no specific religious forums so that everyone was grouped into the non-specific forum, but at this stage it seems silly and even a little rude to suggest we delete the christian forum, since it's already there and full of lively debate, deep spiritual statements and a lot of scripture which I feel is very valuable to some of us.

Please don't fight over this. It's just a humble suggestion, borne out of curiosity.

There already is one, called Faith Discussions. I thought that was for non-Christian topics?
 

Tonington

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 27, 2006
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I don't think a change would be positive or negative. I voted neutral. I can't speak for everyone, but I personally peruse the main page to view the topics, or the get new posts or related buttons. Rarely do I enter a specific forum to look at the topics.

Also, I don't think that creating a new forum for specific religious topics would mitigate the problems in the discussions, though I suppose it would be something of a housekeeping change for better organization of topics.
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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i'm not certain of the the purpose of that forum. I assumed since faith is a word which is used a lot by christians it was a christian forum. At the very best it's a forum with no denomination, which makes it redundant
 

eh1eh

Blah Blah Blah
Aug 31, 2006
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Under a Lone Palm
i'm not certain of the the purpose of that forum. I assumed since faith is a word which is used a lot by christians it was a christian forum. At the very best it's a forum with no denomination, which makes it redundant

That's a tricky one, I have faith, but do not believe in 'religion' ,so i think that is where the distinction lies. But I could be wrong.
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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hmm I just checked out the content of that forum and it seems everyone is a little unsure of who shoudl use it, it's very under-used. So far 3 threads, two pagan and one non-denominational.
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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after further research I think i'd actually change my vote to neutral. I thought that faith discussion was a) a sub-forum of christian discussion and b)not for non-christians, and it turns out neither of these are true, and if u know where to look it says so:

Faith Discussion
Aimed at non-christian topics. Note: Forum will be stringently moderated. Any personal attacks will be deleted without notice.

so neutral should have an extra vote, with maybe a footnote to suggest making it a little clearer

"faith" to me does seem to heavily suggest christianity
 

eh1eh

Blah Blah Blah
Aug 31, 2006
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"Faith" may suggest christianity but christianity suggests "religion" and there is a mile of mire between the two.Not to bog down your thread but IMO there should be a distinction between religious forums and faith forums. While they are associated they do not go hand in hand.:)
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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it's a matter of structure then. I agree with spirituality and philosophy being the top forum, but then sub-forums maybe christian, other denominations, and general philosophy, something like that. it's just because it's not clear now who goes where. try to imagine if you were a hindu and u entered this forum wishing to post an interesting observation about something you heard about vishnu. where would u head to? At first glance i think i'd think there was nowhere for me to go.
 

selfactivated

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Apr 11, 2006
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"Faith" may suggest christianity but christianity suggests "religion" and there is a mile of mire between the two.Not to bog down your thread but IMO there should be a distinction between religious forums and faith forums. While they are associated they do not go hand in hand.:)


As always you read my mind ;) Here's how it breaks down in my mind

Spirituality and Phil.......forum

Sub-forums

1) Christianity
2) Faith
3) Phil

If Chrisianity is changed to "Religion" Wouldnt that be more inclusive of everybody? Even Pagans have a Religion (some anyways) but it would include Islam, Hindi and so forth.
 

darkbeaver

the universe is electric
Jan 26, 2006
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RR1 Distopia 666 Discordia
I'm in favour of continuing the religious wars untill secularism reigns supreme. Why not stand and fight to the last drop of virtual blood, it'll be glorious, think of the medals and ribbons. Strike up the band forward march, present arms and feet----left-----left----left-----:laughing7::wave:
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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Newfoundland!
I'm in favour of continuing the religious wars untill secularism reigns supreme. Why not stand and fight to the last drop of virtual blood, it'll be glorious, think of the medals and ribbons. Strike up the band forward march, present arms and feet----left-----left----left-----:laughing7::wave:

I did respectfully ask you to avoid this kind of statement in the original post.
 

selfactivated

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Apr 11, 2006
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I think "religion" would be too wide a subject. I think it's wise to separate christianity just because of its size


I disagree, Religion is all thats in that forum and to lump Pagan's hindi et al in faith isnt being fair either. The forum is Spirituality and Philosophy Saying Christianity is the only important religion to have its own sub forum in my opinion shows that its the only one worth talking about. Lumping the rest in Faih, Although thats where I put my threads, because i dont have a religion but i do have faith, My point is........if I ever get to it......that changing the forum to Religion is more PC than leaving everyone else out.
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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I disagree, Religion is all thats in that forum and to lump Pagan's hindi et al in faith isnt being fair either. The forum is Spirituality and Philosophy Saying Christianity is the only important religion to have its own sub forum in my opinion shows that its the only one worth talking about. Lumping the rest in Faih, Although thats where I put my threads, because i dont have a religion but i do have faith, My point is........if I ever get to it......that changing the forum to Religion is more PC than leaving everyone else out.

to be fair this is a mostly canadian website, and without actually adding up the statistics i think that christianity would be about the same size in numbers of heads as the other religions put together. I know this isnt true worldwide but i think it might be true in canada and maybe more than true in cancon
 

selfactivated

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Apr 11, 2006
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to be fair this is a mostly canadian website, and without actually adding up the statistics i think that christianity would be about the same size in numbers of heads as the other religions put together. I know this isnt true worldwide but i think it might be true in canada and maybe more than true in cancon


That gets thrown in my face alot around here. How about being just People, How about being fairminded. Id rather be a citizen of the world than be anything at all. Being onesided........well Ive put my two cents in worth.
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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I agree entirely. But the arrangement of the forum isnt really to do with worldwide beliefs as far as i can tell. it seems to me it's more about housekeeping. In which case you need a system which is logical based on the quantity of anticipated traffic, and easy for the users to decipher.
 

mapleleafgirl

Electoral Member
Dec 13, 2006
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all this might make a conversation, but with respect herman, youre not the admin or a moderator, so it really isnt up to you to change anyway..know what i mean?