OP has to negotiate to close a thread that mods took off track?

About This Message Board
1

I opened a thread in GQ in order to fight my ignorance regarding the extent of a statistical claim regarding Christianity that Colibri made in ATMB.

I asked for very specific on topic topics so as to avoid getting moved to GD because I am not interested in a debate about the matter, only enlightenment, and I don’t want to wade through the same old same old to find it.

Before even a single answer was in, Colibri apparently decided the good folks at SDMB are not capable of answering the question within the constraints asked by the OP (me), and moved it to GD anyway.

By the time I saw it, a couple of answers came in anyway, which were interesting but not the complete ignorance fighting I was hoping to glean over the life of the thread.

Because I am interested in other than a debate, I asked for the thread to be closed, as I have seen done by various OPs before (but I don’t recall ever doing myself before).

Instead of simply closing the thread as requested, which seems to be par for the course in all prior instances I have ever noticed and recall, Colibri seems to be seeking to engage me in a weird sort of negotiation, asking me to forgo my interest in a factual extension to his factual claim before he will close the thread.

I have seen a lot of weird twists and turns here on SDMB as have we all , but I have never seen that before. Why can’t I simply and promptly have the thread closed as I asked? Is Colibri implying that my asking for a factual list of what Christians believe other than love is verboten on SDMB? Or maybe he is saying it is verboten just for me? Or maybe he is asking me to forgo a broader class of questins currently and into some vague undefined future?

Someone noted via PM that maybe IMHO is a better place for the question. I am open to that possibility, with people instructed by mods to take actual debates to GD should the need arise, if that is a better place, please move the thread there, or back to GQ, otherwise please close it promptly as GD is not the place for my question.

2

The problem was that you wanted a factual discussion on a topic for which there are virtually no facts. So anything anyone said would have been a matter of opinion.

3

Given the question you wish to ask, and the strong(and varied) beliefs that people have on this subject, if it appeared in IMHO I’m afraid I’d have to move it to Great Debates.

4

That is why I didn’t originally post it there. But someone else suggested it might be better there, so I toss that out. GQ or closed are my two preferences. If it can’t be GQ, then please close the thread.

5

Maybe. But the origin of the question was Colibri asserting as fact on the behalf of “many” Christians what their core belief is. He didn’t say it was his opinion, he stated it as fact. So on that basis, there is at least one fact, and that is the one I was looking to learn about.

ETA: I don’t doubt his claim either. Christians walk up to me all the time, or knock on my door, precisely to tell me that is their core belief, in those 3 words: Jesus is love. The only part of his statement that was surprising to me is that it is not universal. I only wish to determine if that is true - is “jesus is love” not a core belief for some Christians. And if not, what other core beliefs do they have instead?

6

not_alice, we don’t need yet another thread on this. I’ve explained why I moved it in both the thread itself, and in the other ATMB thread where you brought this up.

Despite your denials, it’s pretty clear from both this thread and others that you are interested in debating the issues. Great Debates is the place for that.

Further discussion should be confined to the thread that is already open: