New Place Description Option: Religious

Why is there no religious category available in the new place description options? Yes, our Monastery has art and cultural elements, so I dropped it in that category, but it's a religious location, an all-faiths monastery, and there should be a religious category available for such places.

Taras

I certainly that would be a helpful addition, personally.

I think it's just to prevent anyone from being offended.... I think cultural is a much better fit for SL than religious.

Anyone who is offended by religion is pretty damn easily offended. (Note that being offended by religious people pushing their beliefs on you is different from being offended by religion as an idea)

I don't see anything wrong with having a "religious" category for places ... although SL's obviously not a religious platform ... there's always room for new categories, I suppose. No harm done.

I agree. I founded TempleNET, a group dedicated to creating small places of reflection and contemplation around the grid, and none of these expanded designations truly fits our temple sites.

Are there enough of these to warrant an entire category?

Why is cultural a much better fit?

I can think of three Buddhist temples, two cathedrals, two churches, and a mosque off the top of my head...I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting and even more I don't know about.

Maybe, though, instead of 'religious' a category called 'spiritual' might work better. Narrower than just cultural, but broader than just religious. Spiritual would include places such as contemplative spots and the like...for some, even just forests, lakes, streams...

With the millions of servers and milions of users envisioned by Mr. Rosedale there would probably be a quite sufficient number of religious themed builds and events to make that be a sensible category.

I'm a hard core atheist for 41 years. I don't find the idea of a religion category in the places and the events to be offensive in the least.

Ideally we will get customizable user interfaces and be able to turn bothersome or unused categories off, and have user created tags, and other good things like teh intarweb has.

I see nothing wrong with a religious catagory on the Map. After all, I'm Not Offended by the presence of Indicators on City Street Maps that denote locations of Churches/Temples/Synagogues/Mosques/et al, so why would it be Offensive On Line?

Playing Devils advocate for a second though (Pun Intended) you DO realize that Religious Means ALL religions Including Wiccans, VooDoo, Santoria, Satanism, Rastafarianism, Hari Krishnas, Moonies, Polytheists, Peganists, Anamists, Fao Lun Gong,,,ANY religious persuasion in which people take part. ALL would have to be allowed, and treated with Equal respect Just as in the real world (????????). For many, religious or Not, it's a Very sensative subject. Many people, religious or Not, hold extremely strong views on what constitutes a legitimate faith and the resulting conflicts just might be something SL wishes to avoid, as much for your protection, as for the protection of Others. We are always interested in exercising our own rights, but enthusiasm wains when it is realized that it means protecting the rights of those whos point of view differs from ours.
Maybe that is why LL is not so anxious to Include such a potentially contensios catagory.

Angel.

I like spiritual. I actually have a number of "quiet places of reflection" complete with Buddhas and such. I wouldn't have called them religious, but I wouldn't call them anything. They just are. If nobody ever visits them, do they really exist?

I like this idea, and I think SPIRITUAL would be a better category, it will offend less people. Though being offended by the word religious is a bit silly.

I need to meditate on that for a bit.

I don't recall anyone saying that a 'religious' category should be restricted to one particular faith. As a committed Christian, I have no problem with other beliefs being given the same amount of exposure as any of the alternatives, it is up to the individual to discover for themselves, if they are seeking, which path seems 'right' to them, and for those already with a faith it would give an option to meet up with others who share those beliefs; a useful 'community' building exercise.

Of course, you may get some people saying "my religion is better than yours" but, at the end of the day, any fights started along that line will probably happen anyway. And, of course, if you are in any way offended by the 'religion' category... it gives you a chance to avoid going to any venues that happen to be religious in nature because they are easily identifiable. However, just because someone somewhere may be offended by the use of one word in common use, I don't believe that is an acceptable reason not to have it.

There are also opportunities for roleplay. In Sims Online, there were several comedic 'player created' religions using in-game objects - Orbism (whacketball balls), Plateism (how high can you stack dirty plates) and Cheesism (wearing cheesehead hats) are three that spring to mind - all of which had their beliefs, practices, rituals etc. Many found them amusing, and again it was a way to find a 'common thing to do', something SL lacks in many respects.

There is a "Stage" category added in that last update, presumably that doesn't have very many in it either, but LL added that one.

Lewis

I think this would be a great classification and "Spiritual" is the best choice. I visit all the spiritiual places I hear about in world, and would love to be able to search for them directly. I would be interested in seeing posts here listing interesting spiritual places to visit. I can start it off with three from TempleNET:

Temple of the Goddess http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eldora/214/62/105/
Temple of the Twins http://slurl.com/secondlife/Didugua/216/89/35/
Temple of the Journey http://slurl.com/secondlife/Aplasta/174/196/153/

Isn't SL a temple dedicated to money and sex?

SecondBabylon.

Can we please follow usual forum protocol and wait until the 4th page to derail a serious thread?

I thought that /was/ serious.

The more categories the merrier. Anything that makes it easier for people to find what they're looking for is a good thing.

Should "Sex" be a category?

I'd support that.

It's a bit of a tautology, but Religious/Spiritual might work best. Just like Art/Culture, it covers a wider range.

And of course that includes all faiths. I think it's important that people show more love for each other here than is the norm in RL, and part of that love is tolerance for others' beliefs.

That does not mean, by the way, that we suppress religion in the name of 'someone being offended'. If someone is offended by someone else's religion, spirituality or lack thereof, they need to get over that. There are parts of SL I do not visit precisely because of their ham-handed 'tolerance' that is in fact a form of groupthink. In the case of this particular SL group it is literal groupthink, a ban on all religion, discussion of religion, etc., is in their group documents.

Tolerance means Atheists tolerating Christians, Christians tolerating Wiccans, Moslems tolerating Hindus, and Avatarians tolerating absolutely everyone (which is easy, since we Avatarians only exist in SL and so haven't acquired the requisite baggage of hatred from the big world).

Having said that, my Avatarianism does not tolerate evil as a religion. There is enough evil in the world without passing a collection plate for it.

And I think Sex is a more honest name for the Adult category, but what are you going to do. Some people are shocked, shocked to find out there is actually sex in SL. LOL

Blessings! (And you can wash those blessings off if you're allergic!)

Br. Taras

No lewis, No one suggested it, However, Having seen in RL how well various religious, and spiritual denominations work and play with Others, I considered the schisms to be a Forgone conclusion. I am curious about one thing, What made you think i was suggesting the Christians would be the Intolerant ones? I made no such distinction. I WILL clarify one point however, the religions i chose to list as my examples were chosen for their relative sizes, and for no other reason, Minority religions tend to be the ones Most often targetted for Intolerance, But are, by no means the Only ones to have faced it.

A word about TOLERANCE.
I really have issue with the use of this word as to me it suggests Bearing something that is Unbearable. I really don't see it that way Myself and i never use the word. I choose acceptance instead. I prefer to describe myself as an open, and welcoming person, Not a Tolerant one.
Not really anything critical, Just a matter of my symantic tastes.

Angel.

Religion tends to refer more to beliefs in a higher power IE a God... and religious fenatics tend to be more narrowminded towards other beliefs than their own, even within the same religion, and feel they must preech their own beliefs in order to get others to follow 'their way'..... I could see how people would find that annoying.

Cultural (or spiritual) refers more to a way of living, a community of common thoughts and ideas, and is usually more open, welcoming, and allows freedom of difference.