The Upper Room

@ThomasShields yeah, you can definitely get graduated in the OK range. they look at way more than the stats that you can see. Part of it is just trends and whether they feel like you are at some nebulous state of critical mass...

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle yeah, true.

the other thing is, even though it says we're "excellent" on "avid users", there's not quite enough participation. Part of it has to do with the low question count, but if I can come in and reach the top of weekly participation for a few days, after only like 4 days, obviously there's just not enough of a "critical mass", yet

wax eagle

2:28 AM

@ThomasShields I've talked to several SE staff members who make these decisions and get the feeling that we find out when we're graduating about the same time they do...

@ThomasShields yeah those user stats are basically worthless as they are counting stats instead of rate stats...

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle ah, okay. I guess it's more of a judgment call then

El'endia Starman

@waxeagle Lol.

wax eagle

@ThomasShields yes, in the extreme

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle lol, yeah. What if all the "avid users" just stopped participating? We'd still be at "excellent!" because of the number of above-X reputation users, but the site would be dead.

wax eagle

@ThomasShields that's exactly it. Stackexchange.com used to have a new 200+ rep users stat that I thought was a good one, not sure if its still there

Thomas Shields

2:31 AM

@waxeagle i think it still does finding

stackexchange.com/leagues/139/alltime/christianity

Under "Reputation Change" on the right

oh wait, that's for all time

wax eagle

@ThomasShields awesome :)

Thomas Shields

stackexchange.com/leagues/139/month/christianity shows the rep change this month

only two users (Affable and I) have +200 this month

but the month has just started, of course

but it's a helpful measure of the participation level

wax eagle

@ThomasShields yep

TRiG

4:47 AM

@waxeagle Asexual people do exist, you know.

Aug 30 '11 at 12:21, by wax eagle

@Ben i don't doubt you have. However you did mention that you had only heard one verse. I suggest its more than that. However I will not condemn you. Any man who claims not to struggle with sexual issues, even in the context of a heterosexual relationship is lying.

wax eagle

12:31 PM

@TRiG sociology is hard :P.

wax eagle

12:51 PM

@TRiG Trying to figure out how to respond to that. I've been thinking about it since I saw your comment this morning.

wax eagle

1:11 PM

I have a feeling that asexual people still struggle with sexual issues, just not in the same way. I would guess (and its a guess here because I don't recall speaking to anyone who was openly asexual) that they feel the crush of sexualized culture and perhaps feel something missing. It may be more of an identity issue, but its still a struggle with their sexuality.

TRiG

1:30 PM

@waxeagle You could be right. I know only one openly Ace guy, and him not well (I've met him a couple of times at Discworld Cons, and now also talk to him on Facebook occasionally).

wax eagle

3:30 PM

@TRiG My thought process on this stems from my personal philosophy that no one can escape sexual issues. While it is one of the most beautiful things we have been given its also one of the most easily corruptible (I don't think its a coincidence that the Bible starts with A&E naked and their first instinct after sinning is to cover up). Whether you put stock in the Bible or not, I feel like this is significant.

Stack Exchange

3:44 PM

2

Q: Are "how does x foreshadow Christ?" questions okay, and how to group them together?

So, I was thinking about asking (and answering some of) a series of questions titled "How does Character X typify Christ?" or "How does Scenario Y foreshadow Christ's work?". For example, after hearing a sermon on 2 Samuel 18, I wanted to ask "How does Absalom's Rebellion and David's behavior for...

Thomas Shields

@StackExchange you're late.

wax eagle

3:59 PM

@ThomasShields not the first bot I've beaten to the punch today :)

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle haha :D

did the color scheme change in the chat or something?

wax eagle

@ThomasShields yes, we now have the beta theme for chat

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle ohh, okay. it looks... weird.

I guess my eyes are adjusting.

wax eagle

@ThomasShields yep.... takes some time, I remember when the TL first made the switch..

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle TL? runs through mentally cached beta acronyms

wax eagle

4:05 PM

@ThomasShields Teacher's Lounge, its the mod room

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle oh yeah

Thomas Shields

4:46 PM

must. resist. temptation. to. ask. for. comment. on. down. vote

wax eagle

@ThomasShields lol

I know the feeling

Thomas Shields

I especially hate not knowing whether it was a user who wanted to close but lacks the rep (and thus downvoted instead), which means i need to redo my question, or someone who just doesn't like the question or something

@waxeagle it was my implementation of my earlier meta question. Is too non-constructive?
http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/7007/how-does-absaloms-death-foreshadow-christ

wax eagle

@ThomasShields I'd prefer more context in your question.

@ThomasShields if that's the case they are doing it wrong, that sentiment should be expressed with a flag

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle right, that's what I thought

@waxeagle hhm. okay. Like, provide a description of the surrounding passage? Clarify what exactly i'm wondering?

wax eagle

@ThomasShields exactly

Thomas Shields

4:54 PM

@waxeagle okay. editing

wax eagle

My other thought is to wait to self answer for 12-24 hours, but that's not policy

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle oh, that's a good point. I'll try and do that (though I doubt I can wait that long :D) for the next time(s)

wax eagle

@ThomasShields there is a limit for low rep users, I think its 8 hours, you might try that for a start :)

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle okay, will do :)

wax eagle

@ThomasShields again, that is by no means policy, that's my thought for avoiding DVs and also my thoughts on courtesy.

Thomas Shields

4:57 PM

@waxeagle of course. I totally agree, though. I was trying to figure out how to do that well, and adding a little "I plan to answer this" disclaimer each time seemed weird

wax eagle

@ThomasShields no need for it, just ask the question, if you don't get an answer you like post yours

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle righto

TRiG

@waxeagle Perhaps. The stories we tell ourselves are important. It would be interesting to see a cross-cultural comparison on how other creation mythologies deal with nudity. I know that many are far more sexual that the Genesis stories, but I can't recall anything about human nudity and shame in any of them. But then, I'm no anthropologist.

wax eagle

5:15 PM

@TRiG t'would. Particularly if one could study how it impacted different cultures' sentiments on modesty....

TRiG

@waxeagle Aye. This is one of those situations where I really wish I knew what I was talking about. I'm going to waffle for a bit, as thoughts come to me.

wax eagle

@TRiG sure.

TRiG

CS Lewis has an interesting passage I've seen quoted a few times on the difference between morality and modesty, with particular reference to standards of dress in different cultures.

Many creation myths are explicitly sexual in nature, but it's specifically gods having sex, not humans. I don't know of a creation myth that has much to say about human sexuality.

There's an important difference between "guilt cultures" and "shame cultures", which may or may not play into this.

(Specifically, modern Western cultures tend toward guilt; Classical Greece was a shame culture.)

wax eagle

interesting, that would explain why we spent so much time talking about shame cultures in my com dev and global trends courses in college. It's something we don't relate to in our context.

TRiG

@waxeagle I heard this when it was first broadcast, in 2007. And I still remember it. In Our Time: Guilt.

wax eagle

5:23 PM

@TRiG will check out when I have time to listen.

TRiG

@waxeagle "In Our Time" is absolutely brilliant. It's a programme on the history of ideas. I once listened to a show on gravitational waves. The guests were two physicists and a historian of science. At the end of the show the host, Melvyn Bragg, said, "Next week, Greek and Roman love poetry." Their range really is that broad. They do a lot of philosophy and not a little theology.

wax eagle

@TRiG cool.

Thomas Shields

@Site Y U NO LOTS OF GOOD UNANSWERED QUESTIONS?!

wax eagle

@ThomasShields lol. because we have good users :)

you can always look for posts with no accepted answer too :)

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle oh true

TRiG

5:31 PM

@waxeagle Oddly, the clearest example from my own life comes from a little thing that happened when I was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. And the "ethical issue" is one that I would not now consider ethically problematic (except insofar as eating meat is problematic at all, but that's a side issue). I could very easily make up a fictional version of this which would be more generalisable, but I'll tell the story as it actually happened, within the Witness context.

So, a bunch of us were out in the pretty village of Clonaslee, in the lee of the Slieve Bloom mountains, witnessing (a.k.a. knocking on doors), and we stopped for lunch in a little café, where we had a full Irish breakfast (a plate of very tasty greece).

One of the consituent parts of a full Irish is a slice of black pudding, which contains pig blood. In fact, it contains very little else. We, being good Witnesses, left these slices uneaten on the sides of our plates. (Why we were all having full Irish breakfasts I do not know. Maybe we weren't, but that's how I remember it. Tip: never have a full Irish before noon: it's too much.)

One of the guys was from Canada. He remarked that when he'd first moved to Ireland, he'd had no idea what black pudding was, and had eaten it a few times.

One of is (I think it might have been me, but I wouldn't swear to it), asked him whether he felt guilty about that.

"Ah, no," he said. He'd had no idea he was breaking the commandment, so he felt no guilt or discomfort about it.

And I ... I wasn't comfortable with his answer.

At all.

Even though I completely agreed with his reasoning.

Oedipus had no reason to feel guilt for marrying his mother, but surely we would not say that shame was inapropriate?

Even if you're not guilty, surely you should feel some discomfort?

And if you feel no discomfort, does that not mean that you don't actually take the law seriously? It means that to you it's just a silly formality, with no actual ethical dimension. Or so it seems to me, anyway.

Anecdote: I've had black pudding since. I don't like it.

wax eagle

@TRiG yeah, doesn't appeal to me at all...but obviously that's not the point here.

TRiG

Fictional, more universally generalisable version: Imagine a bunch of vegetarians, one of whom had inadvertantly eaten meat.

Oedipus example taken from the IOT programme above, which I've started listening to again.

wax eagle

@TRiG depending on the rationale of why they were vege I'd say they'd be relatively horrified if they found out. If they were vege because of animal rights they'd be guilt ridden, if they were vege because of a real commitment they'd be shamed, and if they were vege for health reasons or a weak commitment they likely wouldn't care...

TRiG

@waxeagle And if they were vege for animal rights reasons, eating meat by mistake is, technically, something you shouldn't feel guilty about. And yet we'd be surprised at (and perhaps somewhat uncomfortable with) a person who didn't feel guilt in that situation.

And that's because our culture isn't entirely a guilt culture. We're on that end of the scale, but we still have elements of the shame culture.

wax eagle

@TRiG right.

TRiG

5:44 PM

And in shame culture, to quote IOT, our moral copybook can be blotted by events over which we have no control.

wax eagle

(one of the awesome things about Christianity IMO is that Christ's death should free us from both guilt and shame, unfortunately not all groups seem to remember that)

TRiG

@waxeagle Well, nothing's going to actually free us of those without turning us inhuman, but kudos to you for a spirited attempt to get the conversation back on topic.

wax eagle

@TRiG :) Maybe better stated, we will still feel guilt and shame, but we don't have to dwell on it anymore...

TRiG

So, guilt or shame?

wax eagle

@TRiG either or both, depending on the context :)

TRiG

5:50 PM

@waxeagle Yeah. I'm curious to know what happened there. It's possible it was a prank. Either that or he was just careless.

wax eagle

@TRiG oh lol didn't realize it was a link....reading now :|

TRiG

(By which I mean that it was a prank played on him. I suppose it's also possible, just, that it was a prank he was playing, but I somehow doubt it.)

@waxeagle Funny. Your response was reasonably apt.

wax eagle

@TRiG yeah, reading and it seems that both are in order...

or at least depending on what the priest knew one or the other

@TRiG amusingly yes....

TRiG

Can I change the subject?

-4

A: What is the biblical basis for the claim that abortion is immoral?

The Bible teaches that human life begins at conception. Or so people say (they can be a little unclear, when asked, on where, exactly, the Bible teaches this, but it is nonetheless a defining tennent of modern Evangelical Christianity). This doctrine is younger than the McDonald's Happy Meal. Th...

Methinks I should somewhat rewrite this answer to pull in far more information from this blog post: patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/03/22/…

wax eagle

@TRiG of course

TRiG

5:56 PM

I referenced a couple of the related posts, but I was skimming and missed that central post.

So my answer should be rewritten. On the other hand, I'm not sure if I can be bothered.

Basically, I need someone to convince me it's worth the effort.

wax eagle

@TRiG as always up to you. Not sure if it will get votes, heck it might attract more downvotes from bumping the post, but I don't see the harm in improving the answer.

TRiG

@waxeagle Votes? Shmotes. Frankly, I never could be bothered with keeping an eye on my rep fluctuations.

And that's not just because I've stopped considering myself a member of this community. I couldn't be bothered on any other SE site either.

wax eagle

@TRiG good deal :) then by all means.

tachyons

9:18 PM

hi

Thomas Shields

@tachyons hey :)

Thomas Shields

9:53 PM

Christianity SE

@StackChristian, The Stack Exchange network

A Q&A site for committed Christians, experts in Christianity and those interested in learning more

954 tweets, 35 followers, following 0 users

who runs this?

is it automated, manual, or both?

Bruce Alderman

@ThomasShields It's magic.

Thomas Shields

@BruceAlderman you mean automagical?

Bruce Alderman

@ThomasShields Yeah, that's what it is.

Thomas Shields

@BruceAlderman so it's totally computerized? or do you not know?

Bruce Alderman

@ThomasShields I really don't know.

Thomas Shields

9:56 PM

@BruceAlderman oh okay. :)

If it's automated, it's pretty slick

wax eagle

10:08 PM

@ThomasShields its a bot

Thomas Shields

@waxeagle oh okay. pretty sophisticated.

Stack Exchange

11:44 PM

1

Q: The accept answer icon

I noticed the accept check mark icon changed a little while ago. Just an opinion - it looks very similar to the vote up or down button, may be better to make it look different to avoid confusion, especially with non technical people. For example, in stackoverflow the check mark to accept an an...

feature-request

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