Accusing another Freeper of telling a lie is a form of "making it personal" because it attributes motive, the intent to deceive. The presumption is that the poster is saying what he believes is true.
When informing another Freeper that he has it all wrong, it is important to choose the right words to avoid ad hominems.
For instance, the words "prevarication" "dishonesty" "slander" "deceit" "calumny" and "subterfuge" are synonymous with "lie" because they entail intent.
But words such as "false" "error" "wrong" "inaccurate" "misstatement" do not attribute motive and are not "making it personal."
Other words push the envelope of motive but are not synonymous with "lie" for purposes of modding the RF. However, they can be "making it personal" if applied to another Freeper, personally, in such a way the discussion becomes "about" the individual Freeper instead of the issues. Those words include "misrepresentation" "detraction" "disinformation" "distortion" "hyperbole" and "doublespeak."
“The “I belive that” is implied on most statements on the Religion Forum.”
Not so. A non Catholic is making an assertion of fact about the Catholic Church, that Catholics actually *do* pray to statues. That is the whole point.
This regulation does nothing to address the source of the problem that people are asserting their personal opinions are what the Church actually teaches.
And before you get into me on this point, I’ve been on both sides of the line. I know what protestants do believe, and why they are making these assertions because they sincerely believe this to be the case.
“Accusing another Freeper of telling a lie is a form of “making it personal” because it attributes motive, the intent to deceive. The presumption is that the poster is saying what he believes is true.”
When a poster makes the assertion, “Catholics worship Mary”, that is a lie. It is not true. If the poster were to say, “I believe X”, that would be the truth. There is a big difference between the two statements, and it’s a very important one to get across.
I could state that Protestants worship the bible, but that would be a lie. It would be a falsehood because no Protestant church teaches it. In the same manner, no Catholic church teaches that Mary is to be worshipped.
“it is important to choose the right words to avoid ad hominems.”
The burden lies on the FReeper making the claims in the first place. FReepers should not take their own personal opinion to stand in place for the facts.