Why does anyone go to a non-religious question and answer site with religious questions?

Fluther is neither a religious or non-religious site.

What @jaytkay said.

Fluther is religion-neutral. Wether or not someone is a member of Fluther is completely unrelated to that person’s religion.

You know what I mean. Non-religious is not the same as anti-religious. If you read the details, you’d know I wasn’t implying anything of the sort.

Why go to a place not affiliated with a religion to ask a religious question?

The same reason people stand on the corner of the street preaching like lunatics?

Because I believe that if someone is deeply spiritual, they might be able to lend insight into the matter no matter what religious tradition they are from.

Fluther is based on a site where people are experts at things.
Many people here have a large expertise with many different kinds of religion.

Mostly I’m asking because when I see these questions, particularly when asked by Christians, it seems a bunch of the answers are usually just someone telling them their god is imaginary. It seems basically like asking religious questions here is an invitation to have heaps of sarcasm and ridicule thrown at you, with little in productive insight to counterbalance that. Not exactly what I’d call productive.

This isn’t a sex (or computer) Q & A site either, but plenty of that goes down here. Like sex, religion has been a fundamental aspect of the human experience for quite awhile now. Why would it not be a natural topic for discussion? The fact that several Flutherers automatically ridicule any religious views shouldn’t be a reason to shut down any religious discussion. There have been some very interesting religious threads.

^^ It’s better this way. Ask whatever you want and get whatever answers are available. The randomness and lack of control over the responses is a plus. You get the answers people think are important and from that you learn what others think is important rather than just what you think is important.

God only knows.

One of the joys of the jellypool is making up your own mind about the answers provided. Some questions invite a kind of stream-of-consciousness of answers, the religious ones seem prone to this. It is inevitable, in a crowd of know-it-alls that like to write their opinions, there will be some sarcy git who comments just for the fun of it. At first, I found this slightly challenging, then realised I was as much to blame as anyone.

@incendiary_dan I think you might have higher ideals than are strictly necessary here – it’s every jelly for themselves… And the ones they Lurve!

I would also guess you would know the answer other people who share your religious beliefs would give you. By going to a non-religious site, you get a variety of opinions not just the ones you already know.

Usually people visit Fluther more than once. They become part of the collective, and value the opinions of their fellow jellies.

A first timer, or single time visitor might be part of a group of people who are trying to use the Q & A sites to spread their word. I’ve heard that several church teen groups are encouraged to do it.

Oh, please, fluther is an atheist site and everyone knows that. Anyone who is any kind of vocal about their faith gets slammed ridiculously hard and those of us who try to keep our theistic feelings to ourselves have to be silent when general theism is shat upon if we want anyone to maintain any respect for us.

I think people who ask religious questions simply haven’t figured out that fluther is the worst place to ask a religious question or else they power past the nasty comments and general belittling. Maybe they are hoping that, just once, the most self-righteous of the atheists will just sigh and pass their question by, rather than feeling the need to be [edited by me].

@KatawaGrey Thank you for just coming out and saying that! You get lurve.

@KatawaGrey I respectfully disagree.
I feel I am very forward with my beliefs (Christian). I don’t feel I am slammed any more or less than any one else for an opinion..

@filmfann: I’m glad you don’t see it. However, I think that someone coming onto a question about God and saying, “Well, God doesn’t even exist,” is extremely disrespectful. I’ve seen questions where someone has asked something about how to explain a certain aspect of Christianity to their children and many people respond with, “Just explain to them that God doesn’t exist and that you’ve been lying to them.” I find that very disrespectful. Hell, sometimes when the question isn’t even about religion, there can be a great amount of disrespect. “Should I tell my children that Santa Claus isn’t real?” will have answers like, “While you’re at it, tell them God isn’t real either.” Once again, seems very disrespectful to me. I really am glad that you are not slammed for your feelings but many other non-atheist users are.

@6rant6-
True. But I’m not telling.

And bless you.

The site itself isn’t pro or anti-religion, though a large segment of our membership is atheist. I think most people who ask a first question about a specific point in religious doctrine simply have no idea that this probably isn’t the best place for that.

I don’t necessarily think that “God doesn’t exist” is disrespectful, though it should be stated as an opinion, rather than as a fact (since it’s unprovable). Being belittling, though, is disrespectful, and just plain bad form.

Fluther is an open forum, and we are entitled to discuss whatever topic we so wish. There just happen to be a number of us interested in religion, so it has become a fairly common topic on here. I would also avoid going to a forum where people matched my inclinations, because agreement is boring. The point of a discussion is for people to compare conflicting (or at least alternate) points of view so that each may learn about the other.

Why do religious questions have to have a separate category? Surely questions about ANYTHING can be asked on here?

@augustlan Shouldn’t there be an option when you flag someone to do it because what they said is disrespectful or dismissive to another person?

@augustlan What the fuck is @ladymia69 blathering about?

@ladymia69 these aren’t enough options for you?

Flag as…
* is spam (meh)
* is a personal attack (disrespectful?)
* is unhelpful (dismissive?)
* is obscene (disrespectful?)
* has too many typos (disrespectful?)
* is flame-bait (disrespectful/dismissive?)
* doesn’t meet quality standards (meh)
* is off-topic (disrespectful?)
* Something else… (anything else?)

@everephebe I consider a personal attack to be of a much grander scale than being mildly disrespectful. Why are you and @filmfann busting my balls? Are you bored or something? I was just trying to help.

@ladymia69 I can’t speak for @filmfann, but I’m bored & something.
Why would you want to flag something as “mildly disrespectful?”

Not trying to ball bust, just trying to help your help. :D

@everephebe O kay then.

@ladymia69 Debate, even strong debate, is acceptable here and many people will feel offended in the natural course of that. It would be nearly impossible to moderate the site in such a way that no one ever feels offended or disrespected. That’s why we draw the line where we do, at personal attacks.

However, if we see a pattern of disrespectful behavior, we do act on that. One of the best things about Fluther is our sense of community, and respect goes a long way toward fostering that.

Edit: Wow, that was a lot of italics.

@augustlan I want you to admit it now, for the record, the italics in your post (in this thread) were NOT my fault! :D

Definitely not your fault. This time.

I think some go there to challenge the religious people, to convert them, and some because they are not quite solid about their beliefs in atheisim, and they are available to become theists among other reasons I guess.

@flo, were you answering this question or something else?

@6rant6 @6rant6 yes I was answering this question. An asker can ask to really be informed, as a newbie or another asker can ask it to challenge people.
There is ’‘religion’’ section in most general Q&A sites. The users there may be less stuck on their beliefs, and less blinded. Also, maybe they don’t want to sign up to yet another site, or maybe they are asking it on both kinds of Q&A sites, religious and General.
@incendiary_dan A ’‘non-religious question and answer site’’ (do you mean General or Atheist sites?)
My answer wouldn’t make sense if @incendiary_dan is refering to strictly Atheist sites.

Some of the religious questions seem honestly posted and some good philosophical discussion ensues.
But it seems to me some religious questions – the sort @incendiary_dan identifies especially – get posted or pursued from a “witnessing” point of view and the asker/participant hopes for some roasting because the persecution will make them feel some righteousness because of it.

In those cases they are mistaken. While righteousness does indeed at times get persecuted, being persecuted does not necessarily mean you are being righteous.
Sometimes you’re being persecuted for being a stupid jerk and it would be useful for those folks to see the difference.

I ask them because I really love to hear others opinions. Sometimes, others opinions (even non-Christians OMGOODNESS), influence my perspective.

Who knows why people do the things they do. I mean, I recently installed a sky light in my ceiling. I thought it was pretty cool, but my upstairs neighbors went ballistic,