Should we have an athiest forum?

[Davin]

But maybe that's just me.

Maybe, just wait till some other people talk about it to see, or maybe some that would like one are just silent about it. Voting might be a more anonymous method to find out.

[fester30]

And a perfectly reasonable and accurate $0.02 it is to.

However, my point isn't as much logical as emotional. Lots of the people who join here are just discovering their new atheist world view. They have not yet reached the level of understanding you so eloquently described above. So, does this noob to the forum and atheism feel comfortable posting in a forum called philosophy? I would contend that they do not.

I think an area specifically called 'Atheism' would be easy to understand and attractive to new members and new atheists.

That's my $0.02  

Ahh... a perfectly reasonable .02 as well.  I think they call this a Socratic standoff.

[Medusa]

If we have an Atheist forum...and it's in an Atheist forum....

Do we post threads about media in the Atheist section or the Atheist forum media section? I just sorta figured everything we talk about here is about the opinions from mostly Atheists. No?


Example. On the two Satanism forums I am on...everything is pretty much from a Satanism slant as it is.

[Whitney]

Do we post threads about media in the Atheist section or the Atheist forum media section?

That's my main concern in creating a generic atheist sub-forum...it would create segregation between atheist media, philosophy etc and other secular topics; and I think that would be confusing for members and extra work for moderators.

The only reason Religion is segregated out of the rest of the forum is to attempt to try to make it easy for someone who wants to avoid religious topics to do so (and to keep the theists from interjecting their religious views all over the forum).

[The Magic Pudding]

The Help Desk section could do with a better description.
Help desk suggests to me technical assistance with the forum, but it's meant to be more than that I think.

I don't personally feel the need for an Atheism section, issues already often overlap several existing sections.

[Medusa]

The Help Desk section could do with a better description.
Help desk suggests to me technical assistance with the forum, but it's meant to be more than that I think.

I don't personally feel the need for an Atheism section, issues already often overlap several existing sections.

Woah. I always thought the help desk was a 'technical difficulties' section myself. Till I saw something about acne and just decided to not mention it. Maybe more like a peer to peer help section might be more apt a title? Something that let's you know it's not just site issues.

[Tank]

Do we post threads about media in the Atheist section or the Atheist forum media section?

That's my main concern in creating a generic atheist sub-forum...it would create segregation between atheist media, philosophy etc and other secular topics; and I think that would be confusing for members and extra work for moderators.

The only reason Religion is segregated out of the rest of the forum is to attempt to try to make it easy for someone who wants to avoid religious topics to do so (and to keep the theists from interjecting their religious views all over the forum).

Ah! Okay I see the point. I had envisioned the Athiesm area to be about personal investigation of an atheistic world view, the impact of an atheistic world view on oneself, friends, family and those around one at work. The cross at 'ground zero' would not be something that would go in the Atheist area. My thread 'How to tell your family you are an atheist' doesn't really sit well anywhere and I definitly hadn't considered putting it in the Help Desk.

So addressing festor's point, he is achademically spot-on but emotively wide of the target I had in mind.

[Tank]

The Help Desk section could do with a better description.
Help desk suggests to me technical assistance with the forum, but it's meant to be more than that I think.

I don't personally feel the need for an Atheism section, issues already often overlap several existing sections.

Woah. I always thought the help desk was a 'technical difficulties' section myself. Till I saw something about acne and just decided to not mention it. Maybe more like a peer to peer help section might be more apt a title? Something that let's you know it's not just site issues.

I thought the Help Desk was about tech stuff to 

But simply a peer-to-peer help area isn't what I was thinking about either as it wouldn't be just help that I would consider an atheist area for.

And I really don't think philosophy works for the sort of intimate human real-world issues I would expect to come up in an atheist area.

The long-standing atheists here have come to terms with their world view. There are billions of people out there who have nowhere to discuss atheism with atheists and if they came here where are they going to discuss atheism in a welcoming personal environment? It's not a hard-core philosophical debate for a teenager suddenly realising religion doesn't cut it anymore. It's not a philosophical debate for a JW elder who has come to the same conclusion as the teenager at 50+ years of age.

The atheist area would be a landing pad for people who want to discuss their new atheistic world view at a personal level, not an academic one.

This is all good discussion as I'm refining what I think the atheist area should be about and why I think we need one.

I'll give an example of something that happened years ago when I was indexing a catalogue. I was looking for 'glue' I couldn't find it so I added the term. Later on when the catalogue was printed I was looking through it and checked to see if 'glue' was correctly indexed. The term was not in the index. So I went to the hardware product manager who was responsible for glue. He told me he had taken the term out because 'we don't sell glue, we sell adhesives.' He was more interested in the academic accuracy of the index rather than its usability from the customer perspective. If one were to extend this situation to the forum maybe we should change the name to Happy Philosophers 

[Medusa]

Maybe personal atheism. Or spiritual atheism. Something letting you know it's not about academics per say. But more about in real life situations. Practical Atheism!

[Tank]

Maybe personal atheism. Or spiritual atheism. Something letting you know it's not about academics per say. But more about in real life situations. Practical Atheism!

Getting there, getting there! Practical Atheism still constrains the subject matter a little IMO. If one starts to constrain what is expected in the atheist area then one risks excluding subjects. I still think Atheism should be the title. But the description should explain what is expected in the area.

[Medusa]

Maybe personal atheism. Or spiritual atheism. Something letting you know it's not about academics per say. But more about in real life situations. Practical Atheism!

Getting there, getting there! Practical Atheism still constrains the subject matter a little IMO. If one starts to constrain what is expected in the atheist area then one risks excluding subjects. I still think Atheism should be the title. But the description should explain what is expected in the area.

ATHEISM (the personal experience)? What would be in there is about Atheism in general in a non academic way? Give me an example of a thread you might see in that section.

[Tank]

Maybe personal atheism. Or spiritual atheism. Something letting you know it's not about academics per say. But more about in real life situations. Practical Atheism!

Getting there, getting there! Practical Atheism still constrains the subject matter a little IMO. If one starts to constrain what is expected in the atheist area then one risks excluding subjects. I still think Atheism should be the title. But the description should explain what is expected in the area.

ATHEISM (the personal experience)? What would be in there is about Atheism in general in a non academic way? Give me an example of a thread you might see in that section.

Why did you become an atheist?
Where do you sit on the Dawkins scale?
50 years as a JW and now I can't believe.
I have become an atheist, my wife is still a Christian, help!
How do I come out to my parents.
Now I am an atheist I can't cope with the idea of dying.
Help, being bullied at school because I'm an atheist.
Douch bag Christians pissing me off at work.
Why should I become an atheist?
Satanism and atheism what's the link?

I could go on

[Medusa]

Hmm ok I see. I still sorta like Atheism (the personal experience)

[Tank]

Hmm ok I see. I still sorta like Atheism (the personal experience)

That sort of reads like a confessional request and some people may want to discuss atheism (they won't see it as a philosophical position) to find out if they are an atheist/agnostic/theist.

[Whitney]

What if the section was "Life as an atheist" and went in the Community category.

It would be non academic yet still indicate what the area is for.  Most people don't read the descriptions so the title has to have some indication if we don't want people dumping everything atheist related in there (which would kill large parts of the rest of the forum).