Quoting Juan Buhler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: .... > We are a group of people who stay in contact in a daily basis. It is > only natural that politics and religion, being the most important > facets of life imho, will come up here and there.
Given some things you've said in the past, I was genuinely surprised to read here that religion is one of the most important facets of life in your opinion. (That politics was one, didn't surprise me, but something you'd said in the past left me with the impression that you were quite irreligious. I must've missed something or misread something.) Live and learn!! Anyway, I quite agree with you that those are important to people. But that also means that, at least to some people, their political opinions are very deep ones; and a person's religious faith may be more deeply held still. It's quite possible that politics and religion could be discussed by people who don't share the same beliefs. The problem arises when someone writes something that is hostile to, or rudely dismissive of, another political point of view or religious point of view. In other words, throwing out an insult, knowing it's an insult to a different point of view. Insulting a person's choice of shirt may be easily worked out as humorous teasing or something ... insulting a person's elected leader (that the person believed should be elected) or -- far worse -- insulting a matter of a person's religious faith is NOT good for relationships! This is probably why it's considered very rude, and definitely why it should be discouraged in a setting like this one. For some reason, most of the political shouting matches around here started because someone chose to throw out some sort of insulting language. It would be nice if this sort of thing could be avoided by just recommending that people be POLITE and CONSIDERATE in their postings, (people of different faiths or political persuasion can discuss their differences if they're careful to be polite and considerate) but somehow I fear that wouldn't work. Just my few cents. ERNR
