Wouldn´t ethics require the administration to at least tell us...

[quatona]

...why the Philosophy Forum has been shut down?

 

[Strivax]

Indeed. I was just about to subscribe as a life member, here. But any forum that shuts down philosophy is not the forum for me.

Cheers, Strivax.

 

[ViaCrucis]

The Philosophy board looks alive and well to me.

Nevermind, it looks like I spoke too soon.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Tinker Grey]

I'll wait a little longer to see if we get a better response, but I may be done.

 

[PapaZoom]

I'd like to know as well.

 

[durangodawood]

Looks like I was the last person to post there.

I can see how philosophy, with its open ended inquiry and skeptical bent, might be dangerous to a certain brittle kind of Christian faith. So I suppose I cant blame them for shutting it down.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I guess a short post was made here...

http://www.christianforums.com/threads/the-philosophy-forum.7965713/

 

[FreeinChrist]

An announcement was made here:
http://www.christianforums.com/threads/the-philosophy-forum.7965713/
It should have been done right away.

There have been repeated problems with the Philosophy forum. Many of the threads were started to proselytize. Some were started to debate theological issues, mostly between Christians. Others were started to debate some aspect of general apologetics. Still others were started as a type of 'why I am an atheist' thread. What does not seem to happen is much in the way of discussion of philosophy.

We have theology forums for theological discussion or debate. We have a Christian Apologetics forum for Christian and non-Christian members, and a Christian Apologetics Center for Christians only. Evangelizing can be done in Outreach forums and in congregations and more. Since the Philosophy forum caused work and this was repeated over the years, the administration of the site decided to close it.

If you have more questions about it, please ask in the Member SErvices center. I will leave this thread open for a bit more.

 

[durangodawood]

Thats a shame because philosophy should be a vibrant topic here, especially considering how much western philosophy was pursued in a Christian context.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I think part of the problem is the rather vague restrictions on what topics can be discussed and their limited scope.

I once had a thread closed because it was (and I remember this clearly) a thread that could lead to a discussion of apologetics.

I argued that was a ridiculous reason to shut down the thread with a different moderator, who agreed, and then suggested re-opening the thread in a different section. I declined the offer.

 

[Chany]

The forum failed to live up to its statement of purpose. A good portion of the threads explicitly dealt with Christianity and turned into the usual shtick. Very few threads ever really were philosophical. I mean, four threads automatically brought Christianity up in their title alone; what was going to happen? I'll miss the diamonds in the rough, but I ultimately agree with the decision of the administration. Until there is a much better way of regulating the content of the boards i.e. some designated persons regularly check the board and enforces the rules, the only option is to shut it down.

 

[Received]

I think a lot of the problem could be solved by combining philosophy with ethics and morality.

Otherwise, I blame @Ana the Ist.

 

[quatona]

An announcement was made here:
http://www.christianforums.com/threads/the-philosophy-forum.7965713/
It should have been done right away.

There have been repeated problems with the Philosophy forum. Many of the threads were started to proselytize. Some were started to debate theological issues, mostly between Christians. Others were started to debate some aspect of general apologetics. Still others were started as a type of 'why I am an atheist' thread. What does not seem to happen is much in the way of discussion of philosophy.

We have theology forums for theological discussion or debate. We have a Christian Apologetics forum for Christian and non-Christian members, and a Christian Apologetics Center for Christians only. Evangelizing can be done in Outreach forums and in congregations and more. Since the Philosophy forum caused work and this was repeated over the years, the administration of the site decided to close it.

If you have more questions about it, please ask in the Member SErvices center. I will leave this thread open for a bit more.

Thanks for the info!
Am I correct in assuming that this thread is left open just to allow us to ask questions, but not to discuss or comment on your decision?

 

[Received]

I think @Chany has a good point, but I also think the definition of philosophy of religion pretty much doomed any real possibility of a philosophy forum existing given the definition (which I think is fair) of philosophy provided there. You're not going to just rationally analyze beliefs or concepts (the definition of philosophy provided by the forum) without analyzing someone's beliefs or concepts.

I've been at this forum long enough to remember the "old" Christian Apologetics subforum, which basically doubled as a philosophy subforum as well, just like most Christian apologists share a lot of ground with philosophers of religion. The tendency seems to be that thinking apologetically is in the same vein as thinking philosophically, and vice-versa. I think it's too restrictive to try and put rules over and against this natural tendency and then shut down the forum when it inevitably doesn't fulfill its purpose and the definitions provided within it.

 

[quatona]

I do understand the arguments (and as a person who finds hardly any question more boring than "Does God exist?" I fully agree with the idea of protecting philosophy from proselytizing and apologetics - or rather: from every single thread inevitably leading to this discussion).

I just don´t see how protecting the Philosophy Forum this way is achieved by shutting down the Philosophy Forum.

As Received and Chany have already pointed out, "God" is a philosophical topic, and for believers "God" is the central philosophical topic. So, at least in our culture and on a Christian board, "God" will show up in a philosophical discussion. (If you don´t want that, the easiest solution would be to have every post that mentions "God" automatically deleted. An odd solution for a Christian Forum, though.)

We used to have General Apologetics, and this would have been the perfect place to move every philosophy thread that´s going down that road.

Apparently the purpose of the Philosophy Forum (and particularly the distinction from the purposes of other forums) is extremely vague and arbitrary, and thus, not only users have problems understanding what belongs and doesn´t belong there, but also the moderators (and that´s why it causes so much "work").

So, rather than killing that which you say you want protect from discussions that belong in other forums, it seems to me that the solution can only be found in a better statement of purpose.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

Although I no longer post on the open forum (barring this one post), I still occasionally come by to see what's going on, particularly on the Philosophy forum. It appears that the forum is now closed, apparently because of "persistent issues" in moderating the board. The most persistent issue, I would argue, is that the forum failed to live up to its own Statement of Purpose. I voiced similar concerns in the past, noting that CF's own rules created conditions that stifled the philosophical discourse here. Those interested in discussing philosophy might be inclined to look elsewhere.

 

[FreeinChrist]

I do understand the arguments (and as a person who finds hardly any question more boring than "Does God exist?" I fully agree with the idea of protecting philosophy from proselytizing and apologetics - or rather: from every single thread inevitably leading to this discussion).

I just don´t see how protecting the Philosophy Forum this way is achieved by shutting down the Philosophy Forum.

As Received and Chany have already pointed out, "God" is a philosophical topic, and for believers "God" is the central philosophical topic. So, at least in our culture and on a Christian board, "God" will show up in a philosophical discussion. (If you don´t want that, the easiest solution would be to have every post that mentions "God" automatically deleted. An odd solution for a Christian Forum, though.)

We used to have General Apologetics, and this would have been the perfect place to move every philosophy thread that´s going down that road.

We now have a Christian Apologetics forum for the general apologetic topics.

Apparently the purpose of the Philosophy Forum (and particularly the distinction from the purposes of other forums) is extremely vague and arbitrary, and thus, not only users have problems understanding what belongs and doesn´t belong there, but also the moderators (and that´s why it causes so much "work").

So, rather than killing that which you say you want protect from discussions that belong in other forums, it seems to me that the solution can only be found in a better statement of purpose.

we have changed it in the past and refined.

 

[FreeinChrist]

As I posted earlier, if you have a concern or a complaint about the closing of the philosophy forum, please share that in the Member Services Center.

I am going ahead and closing this thread as I will not be able to monitor it today.