A bit of light housekeeping

Once upon a time, this site accepted comments. That was until the Great Mormonism Furor of 2007, which resulted in new Ground Rules for the Eloquent Atheist. You might want to follow that link if you have not previously done so. Even after, or perhaps because of, the Ground Rules post, persons clearly unable to abide by those rules continued to yammer on about the details of Mormon holy underwear construction and other equally weighty subjects.

We are not anti-debate, by any means. One of the strongest pillars of philosophy has been, and will continue to be, the discussion over the putative existence of a god. A recent post regarding a personal definition of Agnosticism should make clear that there is still healthy internal debate inside my very person. In the end, it is not possible to know the god answer without reservation regardless of the position one takes.

There is clearly room for healthy debate that stays well above the level of holy undergarments. However, any attempt at intelligent debate in this area soon attracts bevies True Believers whose general philosophy can be summed up with the words “Because god says so.” Those conversations, after the first several hundreds or thousands, become tedious indeed.

The question then, if there is indeed a question, becomes “Do we wish to have an avenue for intelligent discussion on godly matters?” There is nothing wrong with that idea, and it could be built in such a way that the holy underwear crowd can’t get in, with site membership or perhaps even a members-only forum.

If you think you would actually participate in such a discussion, please feel free to contact us using, of all things, the contact form. ☺ If you don’t think you would enjoy such an activity, or feel perhaps that it is a particularly boring or idiotic idea, you need not do a thing. It there appears to be interest, we will once again consider providing an avenue for discussion.

Michael []


Leave a Reply