40 of 80, by someone's count.

[MineralMan]

There! My mission is complete. I've helped the Religion Group be the most active Group on DU. Discussing religion and its relationship to society and politics has always been an interest of mine.

I'll continue to post new threads as they occur to me. Discussion is good!

[marylandblue]

1. 40 of 80 whats?

And why is this metric important?

[MineralMan]

2. One member of this group keeps count of

The number of OPs I have posted in The Religion Group, and compares that to the 80 posts listed on the first page of the group's thread list. Why, I can't say. It's important to that member somehow. So, I am celebrating 40 posts as mathematically significant.

[marylandblue]

4. At a place I used to work, we had a lot of bean counters

If you did a certain type of task, you got a bean, the bean counters were happy and people congratulated you. If you did other work that was important but didn't earn you a bean, then the bean counters were unhappy. Fortunately, it did not matter if the bean counters were happy or not. It only mattered if your supervisor was happy. But since you are an atheist, you don't have a supervisor, so I'll just offer you my congratulations on your 40th bean.

[MineralMan]

5. At this rate, soon I can make a burrito.

If I wait long enough, I can make several to share.

[Docreed2003]

27. That's like a modern day loaves and fishes, lol

[MineralMan]

29. Exactly!

[Iggo]

30. Did he keep count when every other post was rug's?

No?

[trotsky]

31. Well that's different, you see.

Believers can seek to dominate the discussion because they're so persecuted.

[MineralMan]

32. Can't say I remember. I wasn't around here much back then.

[Mariana]

3. Well, congratulations!

Well done.

[MineralMan]

6. Bless you!

I'm not sure if that's appropriate, but...

[guillaumeb]

7. The scientific method involves observation and analysis.

The analysis is completed.

[marylandblue]

8. What is the significance of your findings?

[guillaumeb]

9. So far,

my observation of the apparent existence of the 11th Commandment phenomenon has been validated by the admittedly limited data that I have seen. I have researched back to 2012, but I make no claim to have literally read every single post in the group so my observation is based on a sample.

But this should not be in any sense be read as a definitive conclusion because much more study is needed.

And the phenomenon is at this point limited to a relatively tiny number of people so any larger conclusion cannot be made.

[marylandblue]

10. The research has already been done and published

Karl Marx's original findings have been replicated by Dawkins, Hitchens and others. Why try to replicate their findings on such a small scale?

[guillaumeb]

11. To which observations do you refer?

[marylandblue]

12. For Marx, "religion is the opiate of the masses" sums it up

For Dawkins et al, read about "New Atheism."

[guillaumeb]

13. The actual quote by Marx is much longer.

The excerpt is far too simplistic in my view.

I am very unimpressed by Dawkins, finding him to be the opposite number of the many intolerant theists that I have known.

[marylandblue]

14. That's my point

You've noticed that many atheists think negatively about religion. It's not a new or strange idea. It's not peculiar to this site. So why not go behind the obvious fact that negative views about religion exist and get into the much more fruitful area of why those views exist. And if those views bother you, what can you, as a theist, do about them? [the answer might that there is nothing you can do].

[guillaumeb]

15. As I have pointed out, many times in fact,

people often behave badly. Some of those people are theists, some are non-theists.

My 11th Commandment observation concerns itself with another behavior that I have observed at DU.


To your point, and as I pointed out in a post some time ago, while some atheists respond negatively to religion, many theists respond negatively to atheism. And unlike math, 2 negatives do not become a positive.

[MineralMan]

16. You appear to be laboring under a misconception.

You seem to think that the Religion Forum is your own private place, which you can control. It's not. If you post here, you'll get discussion that may involve disagreement.

It's not your website. Its rules are not established by you. You are a guest here, just as we all are. Your commandments are meaningless in this place.

Sorry, but that's the way it is. The administrators own this site; their rules are the only ones that apply here. And their rules allow open discussion and disagreement.

There is no 11th Commandment on DU. The evidence of that is that you can freely post here. And we can freely reply, even when we disagree.

[Mariana]

19. "And we can freely reply, even when we disagree."

There does seem to be some real anger going on over that fact. All those protected groups where disagreement and criticism of religion are prohibited aren't good enough. This one little group isn't pro-religion enough to suit some, so the meta whining goes on and on and on and on.

I'm reminded again of the parable of the rich man who, when he was hungry, killed and ate his poor neighbor's pet sheep, the only one he had, rather than take one from his own herd.

[MineralMan]

20. Exactly.

Too many people want an exclusive place where their viewpoints are never challenged. This Group is not that place, but there are plenty of such places available.

I have not noticed any of the people who are clamoring for silence from non-believers posting in those protected groups. Apparently, they're not interesting enough.

There's a reason the Religion Group is the most popular Group on DU. Open discussion, complete with disagreement is the reason. It is not an echo chamber for anyone. Thank goodness!

[guillaumeb]

22. The misconception is entirely yours.

But my observation about the 11th Commandment, my own term for what is quite obvious, obviously struck a nerve with some few here.

[Voltaire2]

35. It did strike a nerve.

The same way a child having a tantrum in a public space strikes a nerve.

[guillaumeb]

41. You have 2 choices.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

17. I know you've been told this before, but there are other protected groups you can go to.

Counter discussions to religion are not tolerated there. Why don't you go there if the presence of people not just agreeing with you that religion is the best thing ever and that we are all proof of the creator bothers you so much?

Either live with the fact that the religion group is open to all or go somewhere else more to your liking. You are not going to change religion into a protected group. That's why we have (a lot) of protected Christian groups.

[MineralMan]

18. That is apparently not the goal, really.

Some people thrive on conflict and seek it out. If it doesn't exist, such people create it and then get all huffy when that gets noticed.

Open debate isn't acceptable to such people, I'm afraid, but some people need to decry it wherever possible.

[guillaumeb]

24. Ironic.

[guillaumeb]

23. The observation remains.

And its validity is reaffirmed nearly every day.

[Mariana]

26. If Gil and his friends were actually interested in discussing religion

they might do that. However, Gil has already explained several times that he does not post in this group in order to discuss religion. He posts for the benefit of an apparently vast horde of followers, who send him numerous personal messages asking him to continue doing what he is doing, and praising his efforts to present balance here.

So you see, his posts are mostly a performance intended to elicit applause from his legions of fans. They must really like the "11th Commandment" shtick, since he repeats it so often.

[trotsky]

33. It's strange though, that his masses of fans are able to flood his mailbox with PMs...

but so few of them can be bothered to click "Rec" on his many threads.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

34. And if there are so many of them,

they could actually go and revive Interfaith and have a snappy dialogue without the evil atheist cabal around.

[trotsky]

36. Interfaith, Christian Liberals and Progressive People of Faith, Seekers, etc.

So many to choose from, so many where they can go and have deep theological discussions...

But they'd rather cheer on gil as he attacks and insults atheists. Ok then.

[trotsky]

21. Someone is just perpetually outraged that atheists...

(particularly atheists who have negative opinions about religion) are allowed to post in this forum.

[MineralMan]

25. So it appears.

All the same, we persist...

[NeoGreen]

28. I'm Sparticus!!...

...oh wait, this isn't the audition forum?!...oops, sorry...(runs off stage)...

[Cartoonist]

37. True?

I've helped the Religion Group be the most active Group on DU.

So what are the numbers? I would think GD or the Lounge gets more traffic.

[MineralMan]

38. GD and the Lounge are main forums.

I'm just talking about groups. Among those groups, the Religion Group is the most active of all, and has the most posts in it. You can look at activity numbers for all forums and groups here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forums

[Cartoonist]

39. You checked each group?

Really?

[MineralMan]

40. The activity numbers are posted at that link.

The Religion Group is far and away the most active group. I just looked at that page.