Validity of differing eyewitness accounts in religious texts

I'm going to insist that all religious works and views mentioned and discussed in this thread (and everywhere else on the discussion board) be treated with dignity and respect. I'm not singling anybody out (yet), but I've seen some uncomplimentary characterizations of both the Bible and the Koran, and this will stop.Further, some people can't seem to resist the habit of including a zinger in an otherwise fine piece of erudition. This must also cease.I'm going to begin by annotating violations that occur after this post, and if they continue then there will be temporary limitations imposed on the member's posting privileges.Please attend closely to the topic.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

I noticed your reply to Faith is actually posted to PaulK. The little reply buttons at the bottom of each message are for replying to that specific message. Replies are threaded forward and backward with links to make it easy to follow a discussion. General replies not specific to any message, or perhaps specific to more than one message, should use the larger Reply button that appears twice on each message page, once in the upper right, and again in the lower left.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Checkmate,Your approach is too aggressive. This is a discussion, not a brawl. Please tone it down or there will have to be a temporary suspension of posting privileges.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Board administration is aware of Faith's difficulties staying within the Forum Guidelines. Faith has a history of making frequent claims of bias, groupthink and persecution, and given that most of the moderators are evolutionists I thought perhaps we were blind to this and maybe she had a point. But though coddled for some time now she still strikes out irrationally and is given to fits of temper, and it has become apparent that the problem is less evolutionists and more just anyone who doesn't share her opinions.Board administration is working toward appropriate strategies for dealing with the issues someone like Faith causes. Though difficult, garrulous and occasionally abusive, she argues extremely well, has an agile mind, and raises many good questions and issues. In the meantime we suggest that others not allow themselves to be prodded by Faith into similar misbehaviors.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Checkmate,The violations are minor, but every post from you skirts the Forum Guidelines. I've explained there's already one volatile person involved, I'm trying to keep things under control and you're making it harder. Take a break. I'll renable your posting privileges sometime during the day on Tuesday.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Please, everyone, realize that many hold their religious beliefs very dearly and personally. What looks to you as a mere statement of fact may appear to someone else as a attack on the foundation of their faith. Make all the points you would make anyway, but please do your best to couch them in neutral and analytic terms.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

You need to stop approaching discussion here from a position of anger and self-righteousness. You've been shielded from normal enforcement of the Forum Guidelines because we think beneath all the bluster that you might have something to offer. Well, if it's the messenger then I think Magisterium Devolver pointed out to you that there seemed to be some substance to what I've been trying to tell you. And yet you come to a new thread and continue just as you have been. Can nothing change your course?I have shown much respect for your personal space, Faith. The moderators here, including myself, have attempted to communicate this message to you many times, myself more than most, using a variety of approaches, including approaching you on ground familiar to you, but you have been resistant to all of it.EvC Forum is not your personal playground. There's a set of Forum Guidelines that you have a lot of trouble following. I was hopeful you could be counseled by some means or another into better compliance, but this hasn't been successful thus far. Wherever did you get that idea? I have different beliefs from you, but I'm no more anti-fundamentalist than I am anti-Moslem or anti-Hindu. You first came to my attention as a constant guidelines violator, and you maintain my attention for the same reason. It's a general rule of discussion boards that 10% of the people take up 90% of the moderator resources, and we try to manage that here by limiting the participation of people who become too much of a moderator headache. You have chutzpah, I'll grant you that. You're the one with a great deal of difficulty following the Forum Guidelines, getting along with others and being a general moderator headache. I'll make you a deal. Since you're resistant to all coaxing and counseling, you stick to the Forum Guidelines and I won't suspend your posting privileges. In other words, you'll be treated just like everyone else.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Help, I'm being ignored! I'm being deep-sixed! I'm being drowned!Help me!Help me!Help me!Help me!

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

I see two problems with the way this thread is proceeding:

• It's off topic.
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• People are much too easily offended.

So we're going to play a game where each time you violate one of the following rules, you'll be restricted from posting in the [forum=-6] forum until this topic closes:

1. Do not post off-topic,
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2. Do not get upset and complain about rudeness or not treating your religion with respect or lying about your religion.
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   I'd like to say a bit more about this one. Both the Moslem and the Christian sides have complained about characterizations of their religion and/or holy books. If you're so sensitive you get upset when people don't show what you feel is proper respect, then you shouldn't be here. To provide a hopefully clarifying example, the proper response to, "The Bible is not the Word of God" is "Well, let's examine that proposition." The precisely wrong response is, "How dare you disrespect my religion!"
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3. You are rude or fail to treat another's religion with respect or you tell lies about another's religion in the judgment of moderators. Don't complain that moderators aren't enforcing the rules, because that would violate rule 2 and you'll be gone from the discussion.
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4. You violate the Forum Guidelines.

Last one left in the [forum=-6] forum is the winner. Let the games begin.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Thank you for playing. Your posting privileges in [forum=-6] will be restored when this thread closes.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Thanks for playing. Your permissions in this forum will be restored when the thread closes.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Thanks for playing! Your privileges in this forum will be restored when the thread closes.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Explanation of how the exchange was on-topic was pretty convincing. Apologies for missing it the first time.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Could you please tie these comments into the thread's topic?

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Admin advisories are not up for discussion. I don't recall reading in the Forum Guidelines that "He did it first" makes subsequent violations okay. Read Asgara's recent posts on the topic (Message 233 and Message 233), moderators will not be taking on the impossible task of figuring out who started what. Members are responsible for their own guidelines violations.Furthermore, I only noted the off-topic nature of your post and not its other qualities. I took this subtle approach because of your prickly nature, hoping you'd realize on your own what was really wrong, but you decided to dispute it anyway. I've read Arachnophilia's reply to you, and he apparently found it as, er, problematic as it initially appeared to me. Please stick to the topic and control your appetite for bringing the judgment of God down upon people.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director