Remove the "R" from "PPR"?

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I've noticed lately that a lot of users have been creating threads in PPR about their religion, hoping to have a friendly discussion with fellow believers.

Naturally, the hardcore atheists (who probably make up a narrow majority in PPR) have a tendency to derail the thread somewhat.

Maybe removing the "Religion" from the name of PPR and either directing that sort of thread to Random Discussion or creating a "Religion" forum (IMO there wouldn't be enough threads to call for that) would be a good idea? Of course, threads on the philosophy of religion or whether Arkansas should become a Buddhist state might need to be moved to PPR, but I think it is better to have threads incorrectly started outside of PPR than incorrectly started within PPR.

This has been a problem for many years. In my opinion it was a mistake when the site was first created to lump religion in with politics and philosophy. Alex has been asked over the years to consider creating a separate religion forum specifically for religious believers; but he has always declined. Even if a separate forum was created specifically for believers it would still have lots of the problems already typified in PPR where believers of different religions squabble (e.g. Islam vs Christianity) and there is even squabbling between members of the same religion (e.g. Jehovah's Witnesses with most other Christian sects).

As an experiment a separate sticky thread was created in members a few years ago for religious believers but it wasn't used and was unstickied and slipped down the boards into oblivion.

The only thing that does seem to work reasonably well is for believers to create threads regarding religious support in The Haven, where we forbid threads to slip into for/anti religious debates.

PPR is still the relevant place if one want to debate religious dogma vs science. e.g. creationism vs evolution. But PPR isn't suitable for members seeking specific religious support. Use the Haven for such threads.

What about moving those type of threads to Random Discussion? I mean, isn't that forum essentially there for "stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else"?

We moderate the Haven more strictly so that is a much better place for such threads. If someone started debating a "support" based religious thread in Random there is no precedent for disallowing such posts there. It is generally understood that adversarial threads in the Haven are more heavily restricted. In the Haven someone can create a thread to talk about their beliefs without atheists battering them and similarly an atheist could create a thread there (e.g. about depression or other angst) without having to put up with believers telling him to pray to a god.

I wouldn't call religion a random discussion. Religion needs to stay where it is, well out of harms way.

I always thought the news/current events and PPR could be merged since a lot of the time they're discussing the same topics. I don't think a religion forum would attract any less trolling from atheists tho. I think posting religious support type stuff in 'The Haven' is a good idea so they don't get ridiculed.