--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I suspect JDG is taunting you, Fool. Remember, he liked to > provoke Jeroen and then complain to the listowners when Jeroen > reacted. Recently, JDG posted his silly whining about how he thinks > there are a bunch of atheists here who are attacking him. Now he > posts something that he knows you will react to. I guess he is > hoping you will post something that he can complain to the > listowners about and get you warned or banned.
Uhhhh.... No. On several counts. I did not post that "there are a bunch of atheists here who are attacking me." I posted that there are *some* atheists (or more accurately, some who are hostile to organized religion) here who seem incapable of discussing religion in a civil or serious manner. I noted that this was in contrast to the absence of examples of Brin- L'ers of faith who seemed incapable of discussing atheisim in a civil or serious manner. Moreover, I did also state that I think the collective effect of this uncivil behavior from the "atheists" has made Brin-L into an environment that I would consider "hostile" to a religious person, and indeed, it has made Brin-L into a community that I would feel uncomfortable inviting fellow people of faith to join. I also have not approached the List-Owners about this issue in general, nor about any one person in specific, regarding this issue. Rather, in the spirit of this List, I attempted to initiate a discussion by the members of the Community about what I felt was a Community problem. Namely that certain posters were not responding to certain topic areas in a civil and serious manner, and the consequences I felt this was having for our Community. I will concede that I have been somewhat disappointed by the fact that very few people have spoken up to affirm that the behavior of several "atheists" on this List has been out-of-line in terms of respecting the people of faith who are also members of this community. :( Still, this was not entirely unsurprising, as the Community has always preferred to rely upon self-correction of behavior detrimental to the List, and has always been slow to build the critical mass of opinion towards censuring or even most drasticly, taking action, against another List Member. I am sure that it also doesn't help that we no longer have Jo Anne Bird around to "ding" listmembers who step out of line. Still, I think that part of the great Brin-L experiment is to become self-regulating in the interests of creating our own little on-line civilization, without resorting to the use of moderators. I think that raising my concerns that the uncivil actions of certain List-Members were having a detrimental effect upon the Community was an entirely appropriate course of action. As for this particular, I read it today and found it intriguing. Moreover, I noticed that it directly considered a very recent Brin-L discussion, namely the role of miracles in determining religious belief. Moreover, this article was written by a fairly respected intellectual who is generally considered to be somewhat left-wing. Thus, I decided to recommend it to the List with the entirely subversive thought that I might present a golden opportunity for the aforementioned atheists to engage in discussion of Easterbrook's proposition with civility and intellectual seriousness. I hope that clarifies my actions of the past two weeks or so. I'll leave the actual reactions to this discussion-starter to speak for themselves to the List Members. JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
