Just that there seems to be a lot of christian related threads over there, some containing links to christian-biased websites eg - pizza parlor.
The problem I have with christian-based message boards is that they require me to believe that Jesus is God. This is just taken for granted.
However, I don’t think he was God, he was just some guy, same as Mohammed or Abraham or Moses. They were all just mortal guys like you and me.
None of them had a hotline to God (although some of them may have thought they had, poor deluded souls).
Anyway, my reason for posting this at all was because I reckon witnessing should stay out of GD and be confined to IMHO.
Witnessing is just someone telling us how great Jesus is - there’s no real debate there. Either we agree with them or we don’t. We cannot prove them wrong through sheer force of argument.
Therefore, witnessing does not belong in GD.
Also, I wondered what the default religious position of the SDMB is - ie the generally recognised stance of Cecil and the majority of his followers.
I’d say the SDMB is predominantly agnostic/athiest, so why does religious propaganda get to go in GD?
From the official description of the Great Debates forum:
“This is also the place for religious debates and (if you feel you must) witnessing.”
“Witnessing” (on behalf of whatever theological view) with no debate (called “drive-by witnessing”) is certainly irritating, but the regular inhabitants of GD can be counted on to turn any attempt at DBW into a debate. And what’s more of a “long-running discussion of the great questions of our time” (to quote the other half of the GD forum description) than a question like “Is there a God?”
And I certainly haven’t noticed any one particular viewpoint on religion taking over GD.
There isn’t one. Straight Dopers have a fascinating variety of religious, philosophical, and political points of view (although it does seem true that non-Christians in general and atheists in particular are over-represented on the SDMB compared to their proportion of the general population of the United States. Of course the SDMB draws posters from all over the world, not just the U.S.) There are Christians of assorted flavors, Jews from Orthodox to Reformed to atheist*, Unitarian Universalists (which overlap with several other categories), atheists, agnostics, humanists, and godless heathens of several stripes, and a variety of deists, New Agers, Wiccans, Neo-Pagans, and people who believe in religions they made up just for themselves.
I don’t think Cecil has ever disclosed his religious views, although he doesn’t appear to be a Young Earth Creationist.
*And people with various viewpoints on whether or not you can be both Jewish and an atheist.
Well not only are there many agnostic/atheists around here, they are predominantly feisty argumentative agnostic/atheists. And there is only so much fun in sitting around agreeing with one another.
We need Christians, so that the lions have something to eat and the audience has something to watch.
I can’t say I ever thought about Cecil’s religious views, or thought I’d have to fall in line with them in order to post on GD. Great Debates, as I understand it, is for discussions that have no ultimate factual answer that can be proven true or false. People argue the existance of God, or the need for gun control/abortion/capital punishment or any other issue that doesn’t end with “therefore X = 5. QED.”
Not gonna do links, just titles, 'cause frankly the OP don’t merit links. :rolleyes:
List of threads on GD Page 1, as of about 11:45 p.m tonight. Select All, Copy, Paste.
**Straight Dope Message Board > Great Debates
Planet X ukbanshee
Andrew Jackson Daoloth
Why is 'Common Sense' Gun Control directed against the law-abiding? Riboflavin
Should women be in direct combat ground brigades or not? astro
What is it meant by to be omniscient? Trout
The most rasist society on the planet akohl
Racism against Arabs DSeid
Quotes that should unite the world against fundamentalist islam, but alas…will not. JohnBckWLD
gratuitous violence vs gratuitous sex: which is worse? you with the face
Justice: Let’s fingerprint all Middle Eastern visitors Stuffy
What is ‘Common Sense’ or ‘Reasonable’ Gun Control? Riboflavin
Why did AK and HI become states? HubZilla
The Big Fence DSeid
Does repression of sexuality lead to ‘abnormal’ desires? Mangetout
What if there was a U.N.S.R? Montezuma
Was the Flight 587 crash an Accident? december
Ex-Gay Leader Suggests That Gay Religious Leaders Say Jesus Was Gay Polycarp
A few question for Omnivores the_great_dalmuti
“Jihad” – The Fight Over Meaning december
McDonald’s: don’t eat our food Crusoe
Has anyone drawn any connection between the 1999 EgyptAir and 9-11? Doghouse Reilly
American Eagle coins: possible income tax dodge? tracer
Is obesity the symptom of an addiction? Mighty_Girl
SATs–racially/culturally biased? toadspittle
5 year plans: What are they and do they work? Montezuma
Racial Consistency Joel
Karl Marx Muldoon III
Know what the bible REALLY says about abortion? NUTHIN. hillbillycavewoman
A modern symbological assessment of the ontological argument for the existence of God Libertarian
North Korea: Why all the suffering? Montezuma
Do people have a right to take resources that others are not using wisely? even sven
The FBI just wants to surf a little, why is that bad? musicguy
The self: an Urban Legend? perspective
WW II in Europe post December 1941 - Why? Sparc
How did America become THE world’s superpower? LolaCocaCola
Do transgender people see themselves as “gay” or not? astro
Palestinians - these people deserve a country? Running with Scissors
US Response to The Next Act of Arab Terrorism? ralph124c
Why do some Priests abuse? jorolat
conspiracy theories,messing with india owlofcreamcheese
Better school systems, mandatory mil. service…? Homer
is overpopulation a problem? Arjun
Libertaria: a case study erislover
Did the 9/11 terrorists win? HubZilla
Can a case be made for UPPER CASE? zen101
Making it mandatory to say the Pledge of Allegiance WSLer
Why does God create people that he knows are doomed to hell. treis
Did Tim Leary do more harm than good for the psychedelic movement? Mr. Frink
Did the press corps save GWBush from total embarassment? rjung **
Okay, Jojo, the ball’s in your corner now: exactly which threads constitute your “takeover by Christian warriors”?
oh sorry, I was in a bad mood when I posted that OP. I wasn’t suggesting there are too many christian witnessing threads going on right now just that I noticed some recently.
And I wasn’t talking about religious discussion in general just witnessing. In fact now I come to think about it, I’m not really talking about SDMB at all.
When I posted that I’d just been trawling through a load of christian boards (just out of a kind of morbid fascination) where you see threads entitled “What has God done for you today?”, “How grateful are you that Jesus saved us all from a fiery end?” etc etc
Then I noticed that, occasionally, some threads in GD seemed to carry the same sort of assumptions (ie that we all agree Jesus is God) when we don’t all agree this.
I wasn’t referring to any particular thread or any particular poster.
Please don’t go away; you may not realise it yet, but you have stumbled across the best message board on the net; nowhere else have I seen people of completely opposing views trying so hard to understand each other.
Huh. The first thing I need to do is say “Thank you.” And I mean it very sincerely. For better than two years one goal of mine (aside from enjoying the debate and repartee here) has been to attempt to demonstrate by word and deed that there is something to my chosen faith – Christianity as understood by the Episcopal Church, liberal wing – that is compossible with rational thought and open-minded debate. Your original post informs me that I have essentially succeeded in that quest.
FWIW, and for a variety of reasons including this board’s policy on discussing other message boards, I’d prefer that it go no further than your comment and one quick response from me, the Pizza Parlor does not attempt to be Christian-biased but rather Christian-based. I.e., it’s run by Christians with (obviously) a Christian POV – but without an attempt to force our faith on anyone, just to provide an opportunity for all, Christian or not, to better grok where we’re coming from. A thread posted before I ever joined there gives one (fairly conservative Christian) administrator’s POV on what we’re trying to do.
I can say explicitly that the policy of the Pizza Parlor is not to “require [you] to believe that Jesus is God” but rather to allow you to explore, if you so choose, why reasonable people might think that strange assertion is a valuable truth.
At the risk of being a wiseacre, I have to ask, Cite? It’s your opinion; people who belong to one or another faith think differently.
First paragraph is a criticism of board policy; I cannot comment. Second paragraph reflects a misunderstanding of what our intent in witnessing (when that’s what we’re doing, not debating a topic) is intended to be. I have to free up this computer now but will be glad to discuss that more in another post if you like.
I don’t think you need to worry about our GD…note we have three moderators in GD. They happen to be the of three best versed atheists I’ve run across. Which doesn’t mean they use special moderator powers to quell any witnessing, (most of our respected SDMB atheists try and respect others beliefs - even seek to understand them) just that they spend a lot of time there and will (in their unofficial capacity as board members) point out the difference between fact and faith pretty darn quick — if one of the other board members doesn’t beat them to the punch.
I really could not see what you’re worrying about. This message board is seriously one of the best balanced when it comes to religion, not to mention the one that I’ve seen that has the best educated people about other peoples’ religions. Having been a Great Debates regular the last few days, I’ve seen no signs whatsoever of a Christian bias. If anything, the general population seems to lean away from such things…
