Religious discussion rules (as of 27/03/2022)

Please refer to Facebook community standards. https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/Facebook group "Religion Discussion" rules and purpose

The primary purpose of this group is to share ideas, discuss and debate issues related to the existence of a deity or deities, the social and psychological implications of religions and personal faiths, and the scientific implications regarding these topics.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please read these rules before you participate in this group.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

How to contact us for moderation questions or issues :
Any questions or concerns concerning the group or the moderation should be submitted to the Religion Discussion Admin page by messaging the link is here :

https://www.facebook.com/ReligionDiscussionAdmins


INSTANT BANS : Watch parties, live videos, suggesting or encouraging a member to commit suicide, threats of death or injury, extreme hate speech, sexual harassment of members, commercial spam, scams, deleting a approved post and extreme porn - any of these will result in an immediate ban from the group. Please refer to Facebook community standards. https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards

Rule 1 :
This is an English debate group.
Please post/comment in English, and ONLY English. It's ok to post in another language when discussing its interpretation or meaning, however a direct debate or conversation in another language will not be accepted.
(Severity: Standard)

Rule 2 :
All posts must start with a valid discussion point of one or two sentences typed by you, encouraging discussion, and clearly presenting your own views. Because many have no access to images, videos, links, quotes and excerpts, you must describe them in detail so that people who cannot see them are still able to participate.".
(Severity: Standard)

Rule 3 :
No preaching or lectures !
Preaching is the delivery of a sermon or religious address to an assembled group of people.
A lecture is any unnecessarily long post.
This is not a church or a mosque or a classroom, but a discussion group.
Responding to comments with scripture is not allowed unless it is relevant to the discussion.
Posts or comments requesting members to PM the poster will also not be allowed."
(Severity: Standard)

Rule 4 :
Be respectful of other members : Insults, personal attacks (including family), suggestions or implying a person has mental health issues will be not tolerated.

You can criticize and attack ideas, religions, Gods and historical figures, but not members (or their family) of this group.

Note : Gods, Prophets, and other religious figures are NOT considered family.
Note : This rule also applies to PMs sent to members of the Admin team, while we understand frustration can build up we we are not your personal punching bags to vent your anger.
(Severity: SEVERE)


Rule 5 :
No hate speech ! We're using the Facebook definition, which is https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/hate_speechIn summary - "an attack on race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity and serious disability or disease."
Action at the discretion of the Admin Team.
(Severity: SEVERE)

Rule 6 :
No trolling (trolling is posting solely with intent to upset or offend others) !
Excessive trolling in comments is not allowed.
(Severity: Standard)

Rule 7 :
Graphic images and Videos (pornography or violence) are not allowed. Images of a sexual nature, especially when not related to a serious debate topic, are not allowed. If you are planning to post a graphic image(s) or video(s) related to a serious debate topic, contact an admin in beforehand and ask for permission.
(Severity: Standard or instant BAN if porn)

Rule 8 :
Blocking an Admin or a Moderator is not allowed as this substantially decreases the efficiency with which this group can be run.
(Severity: Standard, BAN if block not lifted by member after notification)

Rule 9 :
Abusing the report feature on Facebook against others will result in a permanent ban from the group.
(Severity: Instant BAN)

Rule 10 :
All posts should be related to the group topic, religion.
Also allowed provided there is an explicitly mentioned link to religion are discussions on abiogenesis, evolution, scientific method, abortion, euthanasia, suicide, ethics, morality, homosexuality, cosmology and logic.
Politics is NOT in that list !
Reminder : It should not be necessary to play a video or follow a link, to discover the religious aspect of the post.
Note : You may make one Hello post
(Severity: Standard)


Rule 11 :
Spamming in this group is strictly prohibited. This includes advertising services, sites, pages, YouTube channels, other groups, etc.
Members can only post up to three times during any 24 hour period.
Any post that includes a request to copy this to multiple other people, gets an instant ban.
(Severity: Standard or instant BAN if a money making or share scheme )

Rule 12 :
Do not excessively use CAPS while you are in this Group.
(Severity: Standard)

Rule 13 :
Do not delete a post that has been approved, this will result in a instant ban !
Do not switch off commenting on your post or heavily edit it.
Do not delete or heavily edit comments once other people have replied to them.
Due to a history of missionaries deleting posts/comments it has now been decided that all posts from any missionary will be put onto Indirect posting.
(Severity: SEVERE or Instant BAN)

Rule 14 :
Posting uncensored screenshots of posts and comments from this group to elsewhere is not allowed. Please rub out names and profile pictures before doing so.
(Severity: SEVERE)

Rule 15 : INSTANT BANS.
Watch parties, live videos, suggesting or encouraging a member to commit suicide, threats of death or injury, extreme hate speech, sexual harassment of members, commercial spam, scams, deleting a approved post and extreme porn -
Also "Do your own research" type responses in lieu of argumentation will no longer be tolerated, this is not a group for "Flat Earth" type trolls.
Any of these will result in an immediate ban from the group.
Please refer to Facebook community standards. https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/
(Severity: Instant BAN)

Rule 16 :
If you refuse to abide by these rules, then you will be banned
(Severity: Instant BAN)

Rule 17 :
Any post that is a breach of copyright, will not be allowed. If you're uncertain about whether you're allowed to copy-paste from a web site or document, then you should know that everything is copyright unless the web site explicitly says it isn't, or if you have written permission from whoever wrote it, or if it's out of copyright (which in many cases, means 75 years after origination.
So, for example, all the Holy Books are out of copyright.
An exception to this is the "fair use" rule,. that's usually so that you can make a short quotation from the copyrighted work, in order to comment on it. Whether it's quoted under "Fair use" or not, you should always credit the original author (or web site) for the quotation.
(Severity: Standard)

Rule 18 :
Causing a disruption to administration and order of the Group will not be tolerated.
If told to take your complaints to the Religious Discussion Admin page (use "send message" button on top right is discussion view) by a member of the admin team please do so or you will be muted anywhere from 12 hours to 3 days

(Severity: None, this is a "cool off" measure, it does not count as a strike)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
In this group you will get three (3) or four (4) warnings depending on the type of rule ("standard" or "SEVER") you break:
Strike 1 : The first offense will result in a free warning,
Strike 2 : The second offense will result in a warning and a 3 day mute
Strike 3 : The third offense will result in either a warning and a 7 day mute or a ban depending if you have 3 sever rule violations (see rules for detail),
Strike 4 : The fourth violation earns a permanent ban from the group.

Note : For a hard hate speech, the first offence is a 3 day mute for a second it is 7 days mute a third get you **banned**
Note : Certain rules are a instant BAN
Note : When a comment is flagged by Facebook, if we agree it breaks a rule then a 12 hour mute is imposed even for a 1st violation.
Note : Obviously a consequence of the 3 or 4 strike system is that only one (1) account is allowed per member, duplicate accounts when found will be summarily banned and any violations they have accrued assigned to the original account
Note : Apparently this needs to be said so lets say it....
A "attempt to post" is considered a post, the fact improper posts are removed by the Admin staff hence never "gets published to the group" does not in any way imply the rule violation the post was guilty of will not be counted \U0001f937\u200d\u2642\ufe0f.

If you have been muted, you will still be able to observe the group, like posts and comments, receive notifications from the group etc. However, you will no longer be able to post or comment in the group for the duration set by the Admin Team.

Good Luck!
----------------------------------------------------------------------