You went to St. John's? Cool! I live right outside Annapolis, and gave thought to going there when I was young (lo these many years ago). Cool school.
“We did not knowingly avoid any hard questions. And yet we were able to discuss things politely and profitably.”
That this is actually possible appears to be lost on some number of posters herein. Not just on Religion threads. Kind of a shame. The really worthwhile discussions can only happen when folks can let their guard down a bit. And that isn't going to happen in the food fight mode that is so frequently the default mode here, especially in the Religion Forum.
sitetest
Graduates of SJC have the most interesting conversations when they’re not interrupted by having to say, “Would you like fries with that?”
I have been involved in on-line discussion, to one extent or another and in one form or another, since the early 1980s. There is absolutely NOTHING on FR that surprises me. NOTHING AT ALL. Flame wars? BTDT. Smarmy "help"? BTDT. Misrepresentation of other folks' beliefs? BTDT. Innuendo? BTDT.
It's not just FR. It's the nature of the beast.
You can say and do almost anything in on-line discussion, without repercussions. If anyone desires proof of the doctrine of "original sin" ... I might refer them to certain USENET discussions from the early 1990s. Freed from restraints, many folks quickly devolve to the basest behaviour ... and simultaneously profess (with great indignation) that they are above reproach.
RM has an impossible task ... if folks wish to behave badly, they will do so.
USENET readers had a killfile. It helped. A little.
Use of real names helps, as well. For a wide variety of reasons, I don't want to go there.
Real face-to-face discussion (as you had at St. Johns) helps a lot. In the real world, there are consequences for misbehaviour.