Thinking about what makes it all happen

[InfiniteNow]

A recent thread requesting your thoughts on upgrades got me searching old threads. I think that it's important the membership recognize just how powerful their voice is on what happens here. We are always seeking to improve the site, and thank you for your help in making that happen.

Some examples:
http://hypography.com/forums/announc...uncements.html
http://hypography.com/forums/user-fe...ypography.html
Hell, we even have a User Feedback forum dedicated to this purpose!

Anyway, speaking of hell, I'm going to use some bandwidth to pull out some dialogue from a thread discussing the creation (no pun intended) of the Theology forum since many of you were not here when these changes took place. Also, there has been dialogue on this issue recently.

You are part of a dynamic time and a dynamic team, and I'd personally like to thank you for your participation... ALL of you.

Originally Posted by Tormod

Maybe a "theology" forum is what we need to cover religion as a serious topic. I just worry that the people who usually start religious discussions around here are not really interested in discussing it in any scientific way, which is what we need to try to achieve, at least if religion is to get it's own forum under the science forums group.

Originally Posted by Tormod

The problem is that often religion (ie, the Christian version of it) is brought into a discussion as an attempt of some sort of anti-proof, which causes the topic to derail. This is what we need to work against.... We will never find the perfect balance. But this is an attempt to meet the wishes of our members and find out what kind of solutions we can work out.

Originally Posted by C1ay

It is relevant. Even if most of us here don't have religious beliefs there are many that do, and for them, religion is a steering vector in how they see and do things. As scientists we must consider all of the variables and religion is one of them, even if religion itself is not science. There are some tangents where some will base their science on religion and that really is junk science but, it is not the totality of the science-religion consideration.

Originally Posted by UncleAl

Horrible idea. Tell Uncle Al why Catholics and Protestants kill each other in Northern Ireland despite worshipping the same god, three gods, whatever. How can anybody espouse that stuff and keep a straight face while doing it?

Let's have a forum devoted to elves, too, and journeyman intergalactic proctologists who have a fondess for abducting rural bumpkins, and ethnic histories, and Wymyns' issues, and the supernatural, and...

Originally Posted by Biochemist

Frequently, debates surface (e.g., free will vs determinism, free will vs the scientific method, holes in evolution, etc) where the atheists and the agnostics part company. These are very useful distinctions in that the debates surface our biases in any underlying postulates. Where we elect to address the underlying postulates directly, discussion of religion and philosopy is directly applicable to higher-level conclusions of "science".

I think it would be illegitimate to exclude discussion of religion, since so much of science (even among atheists) is based on these fundamental postulates.

Originally Posted by niviene

Hey, I know what you're saying - people get hot over this stuff. But I think t his place has demonstrated the ability to have great discussions about things while keeping open minds (minus a few exceptions) - I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them, and there are plenty around here who would make a great moderator for the place to keep things under control. On top of that, there would be a dedicated place to talk about Religion, so that it wouldn't be all interspersed with other threads.

Originally Posted by rockytriton

Tormod is a very liberal site owner, he doesn't tend to turn away people for any reason other than attacking people.

As you can tell, we have a very robust system now, AND a Theology forum (as well as History ) as a result of your feedback. Please help out and share your ideas in the "Next Generation of Hypography" thread.

Also, don't forget to welcome our new members in the Introductions forum. It can make a large pond much less anxiety provoking to a new member if they have at least 1 or 2 kind welcomes when they arrive. Just be sincere with it. If you are going to be negatively silly of falsely present your welcome in the Introductions forum, don't post there at all.



Cheers friends.