I think Stringsinger has a point. This subject has become tedious - and when Mudcatters get bored, they call each other names. And that's distasteful.

I think that most of us who have participated in this thread, have ideas that are really not that far apart. Most of us are fairly rational, and most of us are not fundamentalists.

But most of us need to have a little more tolerance.

I suppose that the only thing proved by this "atheist" series of threads, is that Jack the Sailor likes to fight, and Steve Shaw likes to fight. It does at times make it difficult for the rest of us to carry on a civil discussion and come to some kind of meeting of the minds. Can't say I know what to do about that.

I don't do "disciplinary" moderation any more. Max removed me because I was fast becoming the most hated person at Mudcat, and being a hated person is not the "real" Joe Offer. So, now I do music editing and tech work and new member registration. Most of the negative responses were due to my refusal to stop certain people from speaking, no matter how obnoxious they might be. So, now such things are handled by an Anonymous Moderation Team, which doesn't handle things much differently than I did. But it has never been officially announced who they are, so people are left to guess.

Mudcat remains a free forum for a wide variety of discussion, both the good and the bad. When I get tired of the bad stuff, I stay in the music section. It's still very nice there - most of the time. And there is lots of research work left to be done on the vast collection of folk songs that have been posted in the Forum.

-Joe-