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.
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.
I may stray off the science reservation occasionally. I think any ideology can function psychologically as a religion. That includes political ideologies, mysticism, pseudoscience — whatever.
Science is indeed an enterprise made up up human individuals, and any large list of people there will be some who are quacks, some who are criminal, some who are nuts, some who dabble in areas for which they have no expertise. This also applies to religion, and the list of people professing faith in a creator God.
So my request is simply to remove comments from science threads that are not relevant to the objectives and methodologies employed by science. It would still be possible to have lively debates — just not flame wars in which the argument devolves into attacks on the morality of the participants.
If "vigorous defense" is the definition of religion I guess belief in the 2nd Amendment should now be considered a religion.