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Here is a sampling of where this issue was discussed on another thread. Now I feel free to discuss these issues with some civility expected from the participants.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2031294/posts?page=122#122

To: Religion Moderator; Coyoteman; js1138; Yomin Postelnik
The request for a “science” caucus came from Coyoteman and js1138.
***I posted essentially the same request.

The snag is that caucus protection only applies in religious debate on the Religion Forum (to provide safe harbor) and science is not religion.
***My perspective is that Scientism is becoming a religion. Look at how vigorously its adherents defend it. Look at the definition of a religion, and see if it applies. At the edge of our human knowledge, Scientism becomes a faith like any other.

So far there is no interest in allowing for caucuses outside the Religion Forum and no interest in allowing science to be considered a religion.
***No interest by whom? Moderators? Or participants?

“Atheism” however is a belief (or non-belief) and has been successfully used as a tag on an ecumenical thread in the Religion Forum.
***Glad to hear it. If Atheism is a proper tag for inclusion, it could also be a proper tag for exclusion on a caucus thread, similar to something like the catholics all talking amongst themselves about whether Mary was assumed to heaven and how to deal with vociferous critics on that issue. It seems like this should be some kind of caucus thread in terms of the atheism tag that you mention. Perhaps that’s what the original poster intended.

120 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:28:03 AM by Kevmo (SURFRINAGWIASS : Shut Up RINOs. Free Republic is not a GOP Website. It’s a SOCON Site.)
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To: Kevmo
Moderators and participants. I set guidelines for the Religion Forum and enforce them, but all moderators have authority on all forums, including the Religion Forum.

125 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:49:58 AM by Religion Moderator
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To: Soliton
Many churches hold services behind closed doors.

126 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:51:00 AM by Religion Moderator
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To: Religion Moderator
Moderators and participants.
***Well, at least on the participant side, you have me and the 2 others you mentioned who would like to see a similar setup in the Science threads. I think it would be nice to see fewer threads getting hijacked.

I set guidelines for the Religion Forum and enforce them,
***Okay, that makes sense to me. This particular thread appears to be an atheism thread and it would seem to fall under your purview.

but all moderators have authority on all forums, including the Religion Forum.
***That part does not make sense to me.

127 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:58:01 AM by Kevmo (SURFRINAGWIASS : Shut Up RINOs. Free Republic is not a GOP Website. It’s a SOCON Site.)
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To: Soliton
“ I believe we will be able to produce simple life in a laboratory soon based on the current state-of-the-art biological paractices.”
Then your faith is going to cause you great dispair. Your dream will never be. Its the faith of a fool.

141 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 1:03:19 PM by editor-surveyor (Jimmy Carter is the skidmark in the panties of American History)
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To: editor-surveyor
Then your faith is going to cause you great dispair. Your dream will never be. Its the faith of a fool.
I would rather live in honest dispair than as a deluded fool. Magic doesn’t exist. Ghosts don’t exist. Your beautiful dream is just a beautiful dream

142 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 1:45:46 PM by Soliton (Investigate, educate, then opinionate.)
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To: Kevmo
Why would you find it such a relief if you also know that such “ideologies can function as a religion”?
It’s sarcasm. Regardless of what a particular moderator might say, science is continually labeled a religion on science threads.

Evolution is so labeled because its findings are inconvenient to some believers. Evolution sprang out of geology, so geology is also tarred with the same brush. Geology bases its ages on physics, so physics is tarred with the same brush. Trigonometry finds a minimum age for the universe to be 168,000 years, so mathematics is inconvenient to religion. There is no branch of science that has mot been thrown under the bus.

143 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 3:16:23 PM by js1138
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To: TigersEye
If “vigorous defense” is the definition of religion I guess belief in the 2nd Amendment should now be considered a religion.
***It is not the only criteria for the definition, but it is certainly one of them. We see that the Religion Moderator determined that Scientism is not a religion, but we do not see what the criteria were.

144 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 3:38:48 PM by Kevmo (SURFRINAGWIASS : Shut Up RINOs. Free Republic is not a GOP Website. It’s a SOCON Site.)
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To: Kevmo
You should ask. I’m sure the McCainiacs would like to have criticism-free threads to promote their idol.
Onward 2nd Amendment soldiers! ;^)

145 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 3:43:31 PM by TigersEye (Berlin 1936. Olympics for murdering regimes. Beijing 2008.)
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To: Soliton
Your faith is just a faith, like any other.

146 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 3:46:23 PM by Kevmo (SURFRINAGWIASS : Shut Up RINOs. Free Republic is not a GOP Website. It’s a SOCON Site.)
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To: TigersEye; Religion Moderator
You should ask.
***OK, then I am asking. Religion Moderator, what is the criteria for deciding whether something is a religion? See post #116: “.... science is not religion.”

Even adherents in this thread acknowledge the faith element in this new idealogy, and admit that any idealogy can become a religion.

147 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 3:55:11 PM by Kevmo (SURFRINAGWIASS : Shut Up RINOs. Free Republic is not a GOP Website. It’s a SOCON Site.)
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To: Religion Moderator
The request for a “science” caucus came from Coyoteman and js1138. The snag is that caucus protection only applies in religious debate on the Religion Forum (to provide safe harbor) and science is not religion.
It’s something of a relief to hear that the official position of FR is that science is not a religion.

Now if FR would only follow through with the obvious policy that starting religion based flamewars on science threads is trolling.

128 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:59:47 AM by js1138
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To: Coyoteman; Religion Moderator
It is now official policy that science is not a religion.
***That happened on this very thread, in post #116, and it’s why I’m asking the moderator for his criteria in determining that policy. It seems ironic that the same folks who want protection using a caucus type of system on science threads are the ones who claim that it’s official policy that Scientism is not a religion, as if the Religion Moderator on Free Republic was the Final Authority on the subject of whether something is a religion.

Mark 4:22 “For there is nothing hidden but it must be disclosed, nothing kept secret except to be brought to light.”

1 Cor 4:5b He will bring into the light of day all that at present is hidden in darkness, and he will expose the secret motives of men’s hearts.

To: js1138; Religion Moderator
So my request is simply to remove comments from science threads that are not relevant to the objectives and methodologies employed by science.
***I see the religion moderator is quiet, possibly due to internal discussions with other moderators as to how to handle this thing. The fact that the atheism tag has been used successfully on an ecumenical thread is instructive. And it’s also instructive that the mod claims there’s no interest, and that it appears the impetus would come from the moderator as to whether he/she would even WANT to try to moderate such discussion (most likely NOT). So if you want to see flame-free discussions on scientific subjects, the impetus is likely to come from someone like you. When you post an article, you will likely get cooperation from the mods if you post it under the religion forum using a “scientism” tag or whatnot. Of course, it also means that whoever chooses to open discussion under such a tag has implicitly/explicitly agreed that scientism is a religion. Until then, it appears we’re all stuck with the existing system.

155 posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 6:54:51 PM by Kevmo (SURFRINAGWIASS : Shut Up RINOs. Free Republic is not a GOP Website. It’s a SOCON Site.)
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176 posted on Friday, June 20, 2008 10:36:09 AM by Kevmo (A person’s a person, no matter how small. ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: Kevmo
No secret motives.
I am just tired of science threads being trashed by fundamentalists who interject their religious beliefs into non-religious discussions.

They have driven away a lot of scientists from this website. In the real world the same attitudes have driven away a lot of folks—whose votes are ever more critical—from the conservative cause.

I happen to believe that conservatism does not equal anti-science fundamentalism, and I am resisting that equation wherever I can.

OK?

177 posted on Friday, June 20, 2008 10:42:17 AM by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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