Question for theology forum users

[cwes99_03]

I'm not a mod or admin.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be needed to be improved upon in the theology forum? I've noticed that there are a lot of arguments popping up when people make claims that seem to (or are "obviously" intended to) create a fight among believers of different theologies. So, I was wondering if anyone had some constructive suggestions

 

Would it be helpful to create subforums for different basic theological divisions? Then discussion in those forums could be curtailed if they turn into my theology says differently by a mod or admin. I would imagine that greater proof would be able to be documented in such a subforum, as is often needed to support claims made on a scientific website. The rules however suggest that such proof should not turn into preaching or proselitizing in any way, which I think should still be abided by.

 

Perhaps some of these threads (though I think it would be very difficult to determine) deserve to be moved to the strange claims forum. I hessitate to say such since many of the mods or admins and others already seem to think that most of the threads deserve to be in a strange claims forum.

 

Other suggestions?

[InfiniteNow]

Thread moved to User Feedback.

[cwes99_03]

OK, can you post a link to those who use the theology forum as they are the target audience?

[InfiniteNow]

OK, can you post a link to those who use the theology forum as they are the target audience?

 

I already left it with a permanent redirect when I made the move.

Cheers. :cup:

[InfiniteNow]

Now, to answer your question...

 

Would it be helpful to create subforums for different basic theological divisions?

 

I'd suggest if you want that level of theological debate and distinction that you visit a theology specific forum. Here's a link:

 

Theology Forum - Google Search

 

 

(Please note, we made it 8th on the list, but that is primarily the result of our google strength as pertains to scientific discussions).

[LJP07]

I disagree with the whole idea. The theology forum should amalgamate all religions to have thorough and realistic discussion on whatever topic. Segmenting them will only lead to " Gangs " where a few members might think there superior to others and will ultimately cause friction,

[cwes99_03]

I already left it with a permanent redirect when I made the move.

Cheers.

TY. :)

 

I know that is suggested regularly, however, too often those forums turn into a non-supported rant of religious people discussing their thoughts and feelings on subjects, and not any basis or proof that others can verify for themselves (such as a translation of scripture or other religious text, or perhaps scientific observation such as the earth is an imperfect sphere.) I also do not wish to participate in such theological sites that obviously have no bearing on my faith and only wish to prove to me that they are right and I am wrong. Instead a discussion of texts and possible meanings seems to have a place on such a proof based forum as hypography, which I think is why the theology forum exists.

 

Would you say that without some control or added measure that the theology forum seems to be spinning a bit out of control?

[cwes99_03]

I disagree with the whole idea. The theology forum should amalgamate all religions to have thorough and realistic discussion on whatever topic. Segmenting them will only lead to " Gangs " where a few members might think there superior to others and will ultimately cause friction,

 

Perhaps you could elaborate a bit. My thought was that by subdividing the theology forum, one would still be free to visit any of the subforums, but when visiting such a forum, one would have to take into consideration what forum one was posting in. Thus if a thread is started in a gnostic subforum a discussion of whether Jesus was married would be measured and weighed via gnostic texts and citation of evidence. While an evangelical christian might wish to deny that Jesus was married, and engage in a discussion of whether the cited evidence has bearing on the topic or whether it is a trushworthy source, he would be required to do so with the idea that the question was asked in a gnostic subforum, and therefore not necessarily subject to biblical scripture.

 

To compare, we already have multiple subforums on Hypography. There is a linguisitcs forum with subforums of italian and spanish and whatnot. You must admit that there are some words which are very similar in these languages, but confusion would reign if one person spoke in italian and another in spanish and they argued over the correct spelling or grammar to use. A Spanish speaking person though would still be free to criticize Italian grammar if the person makes a mistake in their Italian grammar. No feelings of superiority come from such a organization of subforums.

[LJP07]

No, I like the system the way it is. I don't mean to disrespect your opinion but the question does go out to Theology members like myself and I just like the system and I can see your idea being unsuccessful as I seen a similar development that was scrapped in a previous forum I was in.

 

I understand your point but I'm reluctant to agree however good it appears to be for you. Maybe a poll should be added to see what the overall opinion is. I'm going to use the forum whatever outcome and I don't really mind if it comes into place. :)

 

Prolu2007

[InfiniteNow]

Forums do not generally spiral out of control, just the members posting in them.

[LJP07]

True :)

 

If I suggested such a thing I didn't mean it like that. But InfiniteNow do you think it should be installed.

[cwes99_03]

I believe that was in response to my comment.

 

Forums do spiral out of control. Perhaps this site has done a better job at preventing that, but without mods and admins doing their job, other sites have definitely crashed and burned.

 

The theology forum recently turned into a forum for whatever off the wall posting you could think of. (note: I see it as off the wall in the way that others have seen postings now residing in the strange claims forum). Take for instance the following threads:

 

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/8627-jesus-married.html

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/9234-qabalah-string-theory.html

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/8068-who-lucifer-who-devil-who-satan.html

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/9567-jesus-knows-infinity.html

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/9544-infinity-specs.html

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/9384-truth-about-666-beast-seal-beast.html

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/7049-truth-about-religion.html

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/9456-ezekiel-code-dna-molecule-fifteen-similarities.html

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/9284-commemoration-celebration.html

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/9257-amerigo-vespucci-vs-christopher-columbus.html

 

...

 

That was just a smattering of posts discussed in the past month.

[InfiniteNow]

The theology forum recently turned into a forum for whatever off the wall posting you could think of. (note: I see it as off the wall in the way that others have seen postings now residing in the strange claims forum). Take for instance the following threads:

Your "off the wall" post could be another's dogma and firm belief. Remember cwes, one person's trash is another person's treasure. I am confident you did not intend it as such, but your comment above comes off as arrogant and condescending to the ideas and beliefs of others.

[cwes99_03]

Well, if that is the case then why isnt the same said about moving any claim to the strange claims forum. My guess would be that which we are discussing in the other thread some vs others.

 

Furthermore, I realize that what I consider to be off the wall other's may feel to be completely normal dogma or religious belief.

 

In other forums (such as the physics and math forum) certain posts have been moved to the strange claims forum when it is decided that they do not hold to the pattern. Thus when someone posts that they have a theory of how man has time traveled for centuries or perhaps how 1^2 actually equals 2 or something to that effect, their post gets moved to the strange claims forum. Why? Because in the science and math forum their are certain "known" or accepted things that man can and cannot do, and until there is reason to believe that what you propose could be true, your post does not belong in that forum.

 

Likewise, literature based criticism of "theories" or beliefs can be undertaken when it comes to theology or philosophy. So if someone were to make a claim in a subforum for belief systems based on the Bible that Jesus was actually a woman, their claim would be considered off the wall because according to the basis texts of that forum, there is little or no doubt that Jesus was a man. Likewise when one considers a post that says that one can identify the wild beast of revelations through a contrived numerical composition ( http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/8068-who-lucifer-who-devil-who-satan-7.html#post147453 ) on a theology forum, it would be natural for certain ones to reply with strong words knowing that the bible strictly equates numerology with spiritistic practices.

 

Anyway, the underlying reason for these problems seems to be that people don't have a good set of ground rules to follow because very few have been set (why, is yet to be discussed on that other thread). Perhaps by creating subforums for different groups better ground rules can be set.

[Pyrotex]

Cwes, as you said before, you are not an admin or mod. If I were not a mod and I suggested some rearrangement of threads and the admin community showed no interest, I would simply drop the subject. And that wouldn't bother me at all -- certainly not the way it seems to bother you. And I wouldn't go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on with every reason I could think of for getting the admins to do things my way. You appear to be overly concerned with the way others post, with the relevance of others' opinions and rhetorical styles, and the organization of the whole site and the way the site is run.

 

Granted, Cwes, you occassionally have some intelligent things to say. But goldarnit, you can be so long-windedly obsessive at times. Perhaps you should start your own website. That way, you can sit in the driver's seat and run it any way you choose.

[Tormod]

Anyway, the underlying reason for these problems seems to be that people don't have a good set of ground rules to follow because very few have been set

 

I think you are the only one to think so. If I had a penny for each member who has yelled at me because they think we have too *many* rules, I'd be quite well off now.

 

We have a fairly thorough set of rules, and in addition the theology forum has additional requirements. I see no reason to divide the theology forum into several subforums. You compare it with Languages, but Theology here at Hypography is already a subset of Philosophy.

 

I do, however, think that we should take it out of the science realm altogether. I do not consider theology to be a real science and seeing the kind of discussions we get there only strengthens my view.

 

As far as I'm concerned, many of the interesting topics in theology are related to history (how religion has been the enemy of progress, for example), archaeology (interesting finds, like the Dead Sea scrolls), or social science (the impact of religion on society).

 

However, when such threads are started, they end up as fist fights and fall way outside the scope of our community.

[cwes99_03]

Likewise if you left many of the so deemed "strange claims" in the other forums you would not feel any of those forums are valid either.