If a person testifies that he saw water in the desert, his testimony may be false (a mirage) but also not a lie, he did not intend to deceive.
Or more to the point around here:
Poster B: That's a lie.
Poster B: That's a lie.
It's a moderating nightmare because nuancing would allow that a post cannot be judged on its own merit, i.e. "That's a lie."
It is much more direct to simply disallow (or allow) the word "lie" and the phrase "bearing false witness" to be applied to another Freeper altogether.
Then again, under the nuancing, the magic phrase "I believe" innoculates anything else the poster says. For instance,
On the plus side of nuancing, the phrase "I believe" takes a lot of the heat out of the exchange.
If a poster says "I believe God is a rubber duck" then there is little cause for offense - humor, yes but offense, no.
Thank you.
PERSONALLY,
I’D VOTE TO GIVE THE RM MORE . . . WELL YOU PROBABLY ALREADY HAVE IT, JUST DON’T EXERCISE IT . . .
MORE AUTHORITY TO DETERMINE ON THE RM’S OWN EXCELLENT FAIRNESS AND DISCERNMENT . . .
WHAT IS AND IS NOT FITTING, KOSHER, IN GOOD FAITH ETC.
THERE’S A LOT OF OUTRAGEOUS RELENTLESS HOGWASH THAT OCCURS WITHIN YOUR FAIRLY GENEROUS BOUNDARIES
that I’d like to see you have more freedom to disalow just because you discern it to be unfitting and over some Biblical/decency/whatever line of your discernment, choosing.
But that’s just me.
And I can understand how such a change in operations could make your life more troublesome instead of easier . . . not to say that of other mods.
Sigh.
I think that anyone raised with a knowledge of the Ten Commandments knows that “bearing false witness” is the commandment against lying, not against accidentally telling falsehoods without culpability. The “thou shalt nots,” after all, are all about SINS, and REALLY BIG SINS at that.
There really isn't very much nuance to the phrase.
It's just used here because for now, it's one of those “finesses” that you like to talk about, to get around the Religion Forum rules.
I've seen both Catholics and non-Catholics use it. I've been surprised that it's been permitted up until now, as the meaning is pretty clear. But I don't have a dog in this fight, so to speak. I'm perfectly happy with leaving it, as because then it becomes an officially-permitted way of calling someone a liar, which I think is a good thing.
As for your example of posting claims and belief, and the use of the word "liar," I submit that your example is a straw man. Personally, I've never suggested that the word "lie" or "liar" be applied to folks over theological differences.
However, there are times when posters post actual, mundane, observable, non-theological things that turn out to be false. And when this is pointed out to them multiple times, they continue to post the untruths.
It is more reasonable to assume that such posters are telling lies and are liars than that they are grossly (IQ < 60) stupid.
Of course, alternatively, it may be that some of the posters herein are directly influenced or controlled by demons. Perhaps if we can't say folks are "lying," we could suggest that maybe they're possessed? I can think of several posters herein who seem to show signs of demonic influence.
sitetest
First I would like to thank you for volunteering to moderate these threads. As someone who has moderated message boards before I personally know just how much it stinks being constantly called by people bickering and making things personal.
Personally I think the more you try to define what is personal the more problems and complaints you will have to deal with.
People need to grow up . This is an open thread if you are not mature enough to handle open discussion I would suggest you not read open threads .
Be civil , after all most of you profess to be Christians. If you can not be civil with one another the rest of the world will see you as a hypocrite.
When some one does not agree with you it does not mean that they hate you personally. If you are so insecure with your own faith or your own person that you can not take any sort of criticism you probably should not be participating in these type of discussions.
If you feel the need to constantly call the moderator it’s my humble opinion that maybe you are not mature enough participate in these discussions .