When you ask a question directed at someone who is not of your philosophy or belief system do you tend to give

Question

the best answer to someone who agrees with you, or the group the question is directed at?
For instance, if you are an atheist and direct a question towards christians, would you be more likely to give best answer to another atheist who answered, or a christian? This goes the other way, too. I have to admit I have struggled with this.

Oh Gibbonboy, I love the disco god thing! Thats hysterical. I can just see Rick Dees doing "Disco, disco god!"

Answer 1

I rarely write questions directed at a particular group of people. But if I did, I would consider it only fair to choose the answer that best states the position of the group, whether or not I know the person to be a believer. For example, I often answer questions directed at Christians if they are things that are within my knowledge, because my mother was a Methodist Sunday school teacher. I learned as much as plenty of professing Christians. Also I can often answer better than many of the ones who cannot express themselves.

There is a general consensus of what is or is not "playing fair" in Religion & Spirituality that goes somewhat beyond the Community Guidelines. If we give everyone the same courtesy, that does not imply we respect their beliefs equally. It implies we respect their right to be treated like a human being.

Answer 2

I'd have to say "semantics". For me, though, the difference is similar to that between theory and practice. A philosophy is a fairly simple belief that suggests a bias towards answering things in a specific way. For instance, the philosophy of "libertarianism" suggests answering all questions in the way that generates less government. A belief system is more complex, in that it incorporates multiple philosophies that are referenced under varying circumstances. Belief systems tend to be very comprehensive, and can be extremely detailed under circumstances that the believer deals with often. In general, a belief system is much more flexible than a philosophy. So flexible, in fact, that it can tie itself into knots and become self-contradictory. Having "guiding philosophies" when you're building your belief system is important because it avoids contradictory beliefs. Here's an example. A philosophy would be "killing people is bad". That's a pretty reasonable philosophy. When built into a belief system, though, people will append "unless you're killing bad people, and then it's ok", or "unless you're killing bad people, and then it's heroic". People can then extend their belief system by defining "bad" as anybody who doesn't believe the same things they do (commonly referred to as "heathens"). With enough twisting this can result in someone who honestly believes that killing is bad, but that there aren't any people around for which that idea applies.

Answer 3

When I ask a question targeted at a specific group I generally trry to give the best answer to a person of that group that actually answers the question. A lot of times it is hard to find an actual answer though, just a lot of rants. I try not to choose people that agree with me because the purpose of my question is usually to learn something new from people that think differently than I do, so I don't really gain anything from people that already feel as I do.

Answer 4

I usually try to give the best answer to the group I direct the question towards, even if I disagree with their answer. (If I ask a question about Christianity and want a Christian's POV) Sometimes though it doesn't work out that way and best goes to someone I agree with.

Answer 5

Quite often I give the best answer to the most absurd one.I asked a question aimed at christians the other day and one answered about something completely different,but he had inadvertently mistyped "discuss god" as "disco god" so he had to get the points.

Answer 6

I am admittedly biased towards atheists. I tried for months to be fair, and sent all my questions to vote, but inevitably, the first person to answer would almost always (more than 98%, I'd estimate) win. Sometimes, they would get best answer with just a "yeah" to a complex and detailed question, when the person who typed the most direct and detailed answer, near the bottom, wouldn't even get a vote.

Lazy trumps fair on Y!A (not just R&S).

Answer 7

This is a VERY GOOD Question!

I try hard to choose as my best answer, one I honestly consider well-thought-out and relevant to the Q, whether or not I agree.

However, I would not choose as BA, any response that is hateful, mean-spirited, closed-minded, disrespectful to others' rights to their opinions...

[edit] Reading Chrissy's answer reminded me that I not only do NOT give BA to long, rambling sermons/diatribes/rants, I also don't read them and do give them thumbs down to get them out of my way.

Answer 8

That is a GOOD no GREAT question.
I have noticed this. It is finding the little evils that have become a social norm. I am always happy to see things like this. I try to help anyone and answer them and try to balance the scales when people are trying to unite via there disagreement with said poster.

Answer 9

It depends on one's motivation for asking the question to begin with. If the asker already thinks they know the answer, and is just asking "for the sake of argument," the asker will probably select as Best Answer the one that most closely matches his/her own views.
When I post a question, it is because I want more information or insight on a topic. The answerer who best provides that information or insight is chosen as Best Answer.

Answer 10

I tend to give best answer to the one I agree with, and I am very happy when I see that person is of a different belief. I even gave best answers to fundies when they deserved them