garro Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 First off, I would like to say that I think the moderators on the Buddhist part of the forum do a great job. I have gotten a lot of useful information here and found out about areas of Buddhism which I might not have come across. It was from this site that I came across the teachings of Ajahn Teean and I will always be grateful for that. At the time I was worried about makining progress as a layman and his story was exactly what I needed to hear. I have just noticed that a lot of the threads on this section end up turning into debates on comparitive religion. I do think that there is a need for this debate but not on so many threads. Would it be possible for their to be a sub-section for comparitive religion and then can the rest of this part of Thaivisa be related purely to Buddhist topics?I sometimes only want to find out about Buddhist opinion as I don't have the time or the energy to think about the views of all belief systems. I also find the arguing very tiring. What do you think? Are things fine the way they are and there is no point in fixing something that isn't broken? Would this cause too much extra work for the moderators? Am I being too intolerant and un-Buddhist for suggesting that the material on the Buddhist section should be more Buddhist related? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brucenkhamen Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 First off, I would like to say that I think the moderators on the Buddhist part of the forum do a great job. I have gotten a lot of useful information here and found out about areas of Buddhism which I might not have come across. It was from this site that I came across the teachings of Ajahn Teean and I will always be grateful for that. At the time I was worried about makining progress as a layman and his story was exactly what I needed to hear. I have just noticed that a lot of the threads on this section end up turning into debates on comparitive religion. I do think that there is a need for this debate but not on so many threads. Would it be possible for their to be a sub-section for comparitive religion and then can the rest of this part of Thaivisa be related purely to Buddhist topics?I sometimes only want to find out about Buddhist opinion as I don't have the time or the energy to think about the views of all belief systems. I also find the arguing very tiring. What do you think? Are things fine the way they are and there is no point in fixing something that isn't broken? Would this cause too much extra work for the moderators? Am I being too intolerant and un-Buddhist for suggesting that the material on the Buddhist section should be more Buddhist related? I understand why you feel that way, but Thaivisa is about Thailand and the only reason there is a Buddhism forum is that it's the prevalent religion, also Buddhism is one of the things that attracts westerners to Thailand, well a few. Surely there are comparative religion forums, and Christian forums etc out there. If you want specialist Buddhist advice there are good forums on that too. I enjoy the wide variety of viewpoints here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plus Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Yeah, but comparing Buddhism to religions we grow up with is unavoidable. There's "Western Food" subforum here, there are countless "what do you miss about home" threads. Why not something helping people to dust up and adjust their native faiths to their new environments? Isn't it what our resident pandits went through when they first came here? Isn't it what Thaivisa is supposed to do - help newcomers by sharing experiences? Besides, many fundamental Buddhist terms have slightly different meanings in English. Karma, reincarnation, soul, god - we often can't agree on their exact meanings in Theeravada tradition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camerata Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Would it be possible for their to be a sub-section for comparitive religion and then can the rest of this part of Thaivisa be related purely to Buddhist topics? Anyone who wants a new forum can request it in the support forum but my feeling is comparative religion would be a magnet for flaming and is not Thai related. Also, under Thai law, no religion or its symbols can be insulted/defamed, so we have to be very careful. I sometimes only want to find out about Buddhist opinion as I don't have the time or the energy to think about the views of all belief systems. I also find the arguing very tiring. What do you think? Right. That's why we have the specific guideline about discussing other religions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suegha Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 This is a tough one. Thanks for the op garro. I have often thought something like a 'spiritual' forum of 'other religions' forum would be great as so often a mod has to remind us that this is the Buddhist forum when debates go off on tangents (which of course they will). Take on board what camerata says about the possibility of flaming or denigrating others views. I suppose if the forum rules included something to do with respecting each others differences, it might help! Hmmmn, let's give this one some thought... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camerata Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 If anyone is serious about this, the place to request it would be in the Support forum. In the meantime, I'm going to close this topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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