"...it would be nice, just once, for those of us who do have some belief, to be able to have a discussion without naysayers/skeptics/etc. weighing in."

Point taken...and I have avoided a number of threads just for that reason. I have also made a few comments, then left some threads. It has become a pretty standard practice for serious 'prayer requests' and discussions involving religious beliefs among believers(usually Christian) to be held in appropriate forums.
I do note however, that in ALL discussions in a public forum, it is assumed that all points of view are fair game as long as they avoid personal insults and other direct bad manners. There are several ways to have 'controlled' discussions...one as simple as a Mudcat private chat room.
I realize planning a time is not as easy as just opening a thread and adding to a list, but with several thousand folks likely to see the thread title, any thread that approaches controversial topics is almost certain to get both sides of the debate. It is possible to make a request early on...like the diet/weight-loss thread... to ask for no extraneous remarks, but hard to enforce.

Donuel's opening post was a pretty general set of 'opinions' about a set of supposed phenomena, and comments about the phenomena had already begun before I poked my remark in.

This IS a delicate matter, and deserves some thinking about. It's strange, because I actually feel like I am in a minority about metaphysical beliefs, and I have had a strong concern for many years about exactly what leads some to accept, some to deny, and some like me to just 'doubt'.

I shall attempt to restrain myself as best I can.