Allow Religious Debates.

[Sovereign]

Well, while I agree with Woodsprite, someone may want to jump faiths... What do we do in that case? No offense to any "true believer" out there, but there's no logically-airtight way to "prove" one religion over another.

[Woodsprite]

Originally Posted by Sovereign

Well, while I agree with Woodsprite, someone may want to jump faiths... What do we do in that case? No offense to any "true believer" out there, but there's no logically-airtight way to "prove" one religion over another.

Naturally, as a Protestant I believe all other religions are completely false... and I have claims for a few religions that I believe are valid discrediting factors... But I'll keep 'em to myself because there's a time and place for those discussions... and that time isn't now, and the place isn't here.


...There's also the tension between atheists and theists (and New Agers). I believe discussions between atheists and theists are totally fine, because they're essentially opposite. Opposite points are better debated and discussed than slight differences of who's the "true" god. If it's "God vs. No God", then the stage is set: you can't possibly be at more odds than that, which means it'll be pretty hard to flame someone who believes what you believe is entirely absent. Of course, no one expects to change their mind about whether or not there's a god, but discussions that result tend to be very intriguing and interesting to read.

[rapunzel77]

I welcome the idea of a sub forum for religious "debates". I prefer to call them discussions and I don't see why it would be a problem to discuss each other's religions or lack thereof but not devolving into a flame war. That must be avoided at all costs. NO flaming someone because they are of a different belief system. I have seen it done before. Just look on the Avatar IMDB board. It devolved in some placed into a Christian/Atheist flame war. Also, there were several insults directed at specific religious groups.

I understood why there was a policy on the AF curtailing these sorts of discussions. However, I agree that we are mature enough to deal with discussions of this sort. Just look at the political discussions that we have. People can get just as heated about politics as they can about religion but it is very important to talk about these things. If we pretend that no one believes strongly in their religion/political view, etc then how are we to understand each other?