Would there be more civility in the "Religion and Spirituality" forum if there were sub-groups?

Question

Would there be more civility in the "Religion and Spirituality" forum if there were sub-groups for the individual religions and religious topics?

Would this cut down on the noise, or just the debate? Would this be an improvement or an impediment to getting people the answers they're seeking?

For example:
Religion and Spirituality/Atheism
Religion and Spirituality/Christianity
Religion and Spirituality/Islam
Religion and Spirituality/Judaism
Religion and Spirituality/Paganism
Religion and Spirituality/Hinduism
Religion and Spirituality/Budhism
Religion and Spirituality/Deism & Monotheism
Religion and Spirituality/Bahá'í Faith
Religion and Spirituality/Sikhism
Religion and Spirituality/Shinto
Religion and Spirituality/Jainism
Religion and Spirituality/Confucianism
Religion and Spirituality/Other
Religion and Spirituality/General & Comparative

I guess "debate" was an unfortunate word choice. I meant the free flow of information.

I *love* the interaction of ideas that this system enables, but there is a lot of noise, too.

I was just wondering if there was a way to filter things, so that when someone wants to address a question to XXX group, it could get there amidst the noise.

Also, there seem to be a lot of questions asking what does YYY group think of ZZZ. Then, many people not of YYY group chime in, criticizing either group YYY or topic ZZZ or their perception of them.

All of this, before the asker learns what YYY actually thinks, and drowning out any chance for an authentic YYY voice to be heard.

I realize a lot of the groups have anger against one another, but how can there be understanding without civility?

ALSO: If there are subcategories, there is always the option of looking at the supercategory to see all the questions in the section.

So, If there is an
Religion & Spirituality/XXX subcategory, and I submit something to it, it would be seen both in the "Religion & Spiritualtiy" view as well as the XXX view.

Thus, it doesn't take away the ability to see everything, just adds a filter for those who wish to see a specific subcategory.

Jeety:

Huh? Did I spell it wrong? Sorry!

Answer 1

I prefer breaking things down to sub-categories, but there's a question of how many people would gravitate to each one. It's no fun talking to the same five or ten people every day. Besides, if the notion is to reduce friction, check out the average Pagan discussion group. There's a reason people speak of witch wars. Disagreements within groups is to be expected. In fact, such disagreements tend to be more acrimonious because the subject at hand hits closer to home. People have greater stakes in their own religion than someone else's.

Answer 2

sikhism

Answer 3

Isn't going to work there are too many people on here already cheating with numberous yahoo emails, cause they have nothing better to do, and go around clicking thumbs down and making sure people they don't like don't get fare chance doing this whole thing.

Answer 4

let there be peace in the neighborhood...

Answer 5

Yeah, and then when the bickering begins in the sub-groups, we can further divide them into sub-sub-groups, then when those start getting chaotic, we'll create sub-sub-sub-groups, and then eventually we'll have hundreds of thousands of groups consisting of one person each, and each can ask questions of him/herself, and write answers that agree wholeheartedly with themselves. Won't that be fun and informative and useful.
You're sort of missing the whole point of this forum, which is to exchange ideas with people who don't think or believe exactly as you do.

Answer 6

No.

I asked a question about this yesterday, and about whether or not the christians who were railing for this would ideally want atheists and other non-christians to ask questions about christianity in their section. Not many christians answered.

Face it, sometimes christians ask questions about other religions that would cause them to venture out to other groups. Sometimes non-christians ask questions about christianity. We'd still be going into each others' sections, and there would still be the opportunity for animosity and hateful remarks.

This isn't a discussion forum, its Q&A. If you want to discuss your religion with like-minded people only, start a Yahoo Group.

Answer 7

No because at the heart of all religious talk is conversion. You don't get to do that if you are preaching to the choir. Why do atheists come on this board if they do not believe in religion or spirituality? Shouldn't they be more focussed on say....science or sociology? They are here to convert....that simple and subgrouping would not help

Answer 8

NO. Civil conversation happens because of the state of the mind of anybody FIRST. Religion generally doesn't make a difference. People are people first, so if someone's going to be uncivil or civil, they do it no matter what religion or philosophy they follow.

_()_

Answer 9

Great Idea, but in all actuality, IMO "NO" it would not bring more civil discussion because posters will just find the sub category they most disagree with and go there to argue.

None the less, GREAT IDEA and thanks for posting this!

Answer 10

Nope...

It would just give those 'gosh--darned' haters more room to spread their opinions...

Besides, isn't religion segregated enough already????