The current rule about religious talks.
 

This thread may prove to be so byzantingly self-referential it will become a moebius loop visible from space.

"Let's talk about why we can't talk about something by talking about that same something but not in a way that causes problems for the forum and members even though talking about what we want to talk about isn't strictly forbidden by forum rules, which works quite well but doesn't stop us making threads to talk about something by talking about that same something..."

Guh.

When one of these topics pop up, it always tends to turn into a full-fledged flame war. I don't really mind it. I'll give it a read, but sooner or later, certain individuals enter and cause all sorts of trouble.

Not the one in this thread, at least. Which is the issue here, come to think about it.

When I see this rule

I don't get the reason behind the religion rule.

True. Even the facer isn't immune to flaming lol.

Yea, though that is because some people can't accept critics and think JF allows only compliments.

It's tough, for me.

On one hand, I like to debate religion when it's kept reasonably respectful. A good debate can have a lot of positive effects on the individuals as well as the general community.

However, on the other hand, it only takes one person to take their rhetoric too far for the snowball effect to occur. And that's where my experience as a forum mod kicks in.

The basic responsibility for a mod is to prevent flaming (obviously). And while this naturally means constantly weeding out bad posts and posters, precautions are also supposed to be made to avoid running into the same problems repeatedly. Approximately 8 out of 10 religious debates end badly when left alone. Taking this into mind, it would be logical to limit people's discussion of the topic.

I'm on the fence.

If we're speaking loosely, you're right. However, there is a point where certain things become too detrimental to the community to simply allow. Otherwise, why have mods around to begin with?

Religion has started most of the wars in history. They don't want a war here.

>_> Nice comparison.

I am just guessing here, but I believe the number of religious topics that got out of hand is not 8/10 but more like 10/10.

Not every argument has to turn into a flame war, but some lend to that more than others, and religion is one of them.

I don't think all conversations eventually come to religion, and as a mod I hope the rule stays. Many times extremists come here and post religious topics that I can erase in an instant because of that rule...and these aren't "Hi, I love God" but sometimes very pointed and nasty.

So you attribute a consciousness to religion.

Interesting perspective.

I believe religious topics should be strictly moderated. Flaming should be totally disallowed in such threads and give major infractions. I don't really see how it can get out of hands this way.

Probably. I was being generous with those numbers.
I've seen some debates end suprisngly well in terms of attitude and behavior, so I hesitate to say all of them are destined for ugliness.

It's important to note, however, that these debates involved mostly adults... which is not the case with JF.