On a recent trial run for a "respectful dialogue" the very same poster that uniquely took offense at the word "Roman" being attached to the word "Catholic" turned around and used the word "Satanist" on another poster who took no offense at all. What is "respectful" is in the eye of the beholder.
Very few religious disputes can be called "settled." No matter how many times you swear that Catholics do not worship Mary, in the eyes of some that is what it is appears to be. Both sides have a voice, and so the claim is rebutted every time it is made on an open thread.
From my viewpoint, it seems most of the discontent among the Catholics could be resolved by banning a few posters. The same could be said of other confessions and other posters. But I am not inclined to ban a poster because others disapprove of him/her - the poster must earn his own banishment.
“The problem in open religious debate is that what seems to be a ‘lie’ to one is a ‘truth’ to another, what is an insult to one is not an insult to another and so on.”
No, that's not the problem.
“Very few religious disputes can be called ‘settled.’”
I doubt that many here are expecting to settle religious disputes here.
“From my viewpoint, it seems most of the discontent among the Catholics could be resolved by banning a few posters.”
Rather, most of the discontent among Catholics could be resolved by undoing the hidden anti-Catholic bias inherent in the current rules.
sitetest
“On a recent trial run for a ‘respectful dialogue’ the very same poster that uniquely took offense at the word ‘Roman’ being attached to the word 'Catholic' turned around and used the word ‘Satanist’ on another poster who took no offense at all. What is “respectful” is in the eye of the beholder.”
And that wasn't the central problem of that thread or that experiment. That was a sideshow.
The real problem was that a group of posters denied even the DESIRABILITY of the attempt at “respectful dialogue.” And their intransigence was permitted to trash the experiment.
But I expected no different, myself.
sitetest
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I don't believe this is the solution most/any of us are suggesting. Many of the posters who most offend are longtime members of FR, and I would hate to see them banned. Some actions are already off-limits on the Religion forum, such as bad language, but these usually receive a warning and deletion of posts. As far as I know.
The same could be said about "potty language" but that seems to be effectively moderated.