Fair Comment

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All the usual principles of good practice on this site apply to discussion of religion too. We ask everyone who posts to be clear about the purpose of their contribution, and to keep any response to a contribution relevant to what was posted - Talking About Religion unpacks this in a little more detail.

When talking about a religion or belief system, we need to be particularly careful to ensure that our comments are fair and helpful.  All the usual guidance applies, as described on the Behaviour introductory page.  Any comments should take into account the intended readership: a piece written for people who share the belief ought to be treated differently to a piece written for the general public.

So comments on a piece about railways written for railway enthusiasts should accept that the author and readers are keen on railways, and it would not be appropriate to tell them that you are not interested in railways, and think that people ought to focus on more interesting and important topics: in the context of the article, interest in railways is a given.

The other side of the coin is that the author should make it clear who is the intended readership.  And if the author is writing to convince members of the general public that they should show more interest in railways, then it is perfectly fair to respond with your reasons why you think people should focus on other things.  But "I am not interested in this" is seldom either relevant or helpful.

As far as possible, we aim to make the content on this site 'atomic' - each page dealing with just one topic.  This means that comments should ideally relate only to the material actually posted on that page: if you want to criticize a belief system for something the author is not talking about, feel free to do so on the relevant page - or create a new page if it doesn't already exist.

There is more about content and comments about religion and belief systems on the Talking About Religion page.

 


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