The purpose of this MFA Google Group discussion site is to allow
members of the freethought community and general public to engage in
relatively unfettered but respectful and honest discussions about
sacred cows, including religion, the paranormal and so forth.  The
views on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of MFA, MFA
members or affiliates of MFA.  Many people who post on this site are
not members of or affiliated with MFA.

People frequently have very strong emotional attachments to many
beliefs analyzed on this site. When emotions have run high, there have
been a few "ad hominem" attacks in some of the posts. Please refrain
from referring to someone as "stupid,"  "insane," etc--not that those
adjectives were necessarily used.  If these ad hominem (personal)
attacks create a hostile environment or discourage people from
exchanging ideas, you will be banned from this MFA site.

If you want to attack an idea, you can type "that is a stupid,
bullshit idea," which is appropriate.  However, do not call the person
names such as "you are stupid (as opposed to your ideas) for thinking
that way".  This is a subtle but important point.    In addition, if
you call a person's idea stupid, bullshit, insane, etc, please do your
best to explain why you think that his or her idea (not him or her) is
stupid, bullshit, insane, etc.

We are discussing sacred  cows so people will naturally get upset and
frustrated; however, do not  attack someone because they think your
way of looking at something is  stupid.  Feel free to counter-attack
their supposedly stupid opposing ideas with clear explanations--as
clear as you can muster.

Disclaimer: Some of the people on this site are friends and like to
badger each other.  So the decision to ban will be based on (1)
whether or not the personal attacks are uninvited or just playing
around and (2) whether or not the attacks are seriously hampering the
amount of discussion about the ideas/concepts/etc, that is, the posts
have digressed to a name calling, insulting match.  Plus, I will talk
with other members of the MFA board before anyone is banned.

DEFINITION:
ad hominem - appealing to personal  considerations (rather than to
fact or reason); "ad hominem arguments" are personal, that is,
concerning or affecting a particular person or his or  her private
life and personality instead of the  ideas/concepts.

GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE MEMPHIS FREETHOUGHT ALLIANCE

1)  Foster an environment suitable for free speech and exchange of
ideas

2)  Provide a forum for educational films and lectures

3)  Defend the constitutional separation of church and state as well
as oppose government sponsored religious events

4)  Defend the teaching of scientific theories over non-scientific
theories in public school science classes

5)  Oppose pseudoscience, flim-flam, fraud, myths, misleading
information, and hoaxes in the media

6)  Recognize the civil rights of atheists, agnostics, secular
humanists and others who do not believe in god(s) or other
supernatural forces

7)  Seek to improve society through secular humanism, science and
critical thinking, and rational philosophical discourse

Stem cell has been banned from the MFA board because of his comment
below in which he called Tom "not smart," made fun of someone's
disease in addition to a number of other past posts on this MFA board
about which he has been warned.

This banning was discussed with the MFA board, and we thought that
this was best for the MFA Public Forum discussion. Again, stem cell
also received private email warnings that he promptly ignored. His
other posts included repeated and uninvited name calling, much of
which appeared to cause some Christians to get out of the conversation
because of his personal attacks (as well as personal attacks on
freethinkers).  Attacking cherished beliefs has also caused people to
leave, which is obviously expected and won't cause banning or
warnings.  By contrast, direct personal attacks are a different story
all together.

Jason

Jul 26, 2009 11:27 pm, stem cell

In actuality, nobody has ever been banned from this site for a FEW
personal attacks or angry tirades about religion.  In the years that
this site has been active,ONLY two people were banned: Stem cell and
Thorn Peters.  Both of these people posted a series of personal
attacks but what finally got them banned were as follows:

(1) Thorn Peters made a statement that caused some concern about
another poster's physical safety.  Ironically, Thorn Peters is in
prison right now, which we discussed in a former thread.

(2) Stem cell made a comment about someone's personal deformity sort
of like ridiculing someone for losing a leg to diabetes in addition to
other personal attacks.

These two final incidents could probably be tolerated with a warning.
However, these two individuals made these comments in the context of a
long series of frequently unapologetic personal attacks that just got
uglier.  Plus, other posters were complaining via private emails and
both ignored private warnings via email or telephone calls.  To be
honest, most of the angry tirades on religion and many of the personal
attacks are simply ignored--only occasionally does it get out of
control (which is partially subjective and ultimately decided by the
MFA Board).