After long consideration, it has been decided that this thread, as it is, is in violations of the Forum Etiquette Guidelines. If you would like to discuss any topics presented within this thread in a mature fashion, you can make a new topic with a clear, descriptive title and description of what the thread is addressing and proceed from there in manner that adheres to the Etiquette Guidelines.
Specifically, many of the posts in this thread violate these guidelines:
Exercise good judgment, reasonableness, and mutual respect - This is a community for smart people who share an interest in personal growth, so please treat it as such. Personal attacks as well as profane, pornographic, racist, sexist, or otherwise demeaning or offensive messages will not be tolerated. "Trolling" (making posts to bait others into unproductive arguments) is also unacceptable. However, friendly debate, socializing, and good humor are perfectly welcome here. What crosses the line is when someone behaves in a manner that degrades the quality of the forums for other members. Recognize that there's a genuine human being behind every post, and act accordingly.
Exercise cultural sensitivity - However, this is a diverse, international community, composed of both native and non-native English speakers, so be respectful of cultural differences. Do your best to give members from cultures that are unfamiliar to you the benefit of the doubt. -- Cultural Diversity includes religious diversity.
Please note that this wasn't only my decision. I had asked Bruce to give his feedback as well, because as I was actively involved in the thread, I felt that I could not form an independent, fair decision. We both agree that while there are some stellar examples of constructive debate, tolerance, and generally good human nature in this thread, that overall, it shows a severe lack of respect and sensitivity.
We also agree that we should get the opinions of other people on the moderating team, as some of the negative aspects seem to be reflected in other subforums as well.
We are considering "cleaning" this thread to make it more constructive, as it is obvious that several people have made great efforts to explain their views. If we do decide to clean it up, we will be very liberal in deciding what phrases show lack of respect, and will be quick to edit and delete posts that are disrespectful. Beyond the initial review, though, we will not be issuing violations during the cleaning phase, so if your post is edited, it does not necessarily mean that you are in trouble.
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