James Park wrote:

REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
unmoderated group talk.agnosticism

I invite you to discuss the following proposal to create newsgroup
talk.agnosticism. Please note that YOU CANNOT VOTE NOW; you may be
able to vote on a version of this proposal later. See the PROCEDURE
section below if you need information about how the discussion
works. PLEASE POST ANY FOLLOWUPS TO THE NEWSGROUP NEWS.GROUPS.

This post contains 1) a one-line label for the group ("newsgroup
line"); 2) my argument for why the group should be created
("rationale"); 3) a proposed "charter" explaining what the group is
about and any rules that may apply; 4) the PROCEDURE section; 5) a
list of places where this post is being sent ("distribution").

Newsgroup line:
talk.agnosticism Agnosticism open forum.

RATIONALE: talk.agnosticism

Agnosticism is a concept, not a religion. It is a belief related to
the existence or non-existence of God.

Not according to the Fundie-brained idiots Sandfroid and Fenris.
They claim it is a "belief", therefore and "leap of faith", therfore
a "religious belief" therefore a "relgion", therefore just like
evangelical christianity, therefore -- God Exists!!

An agnostic is a person who feels that God's existence can neither
be proved nor disproved,

"feels" ? WTF is that?
You mean either claims or believes, don't you?

on the basis of current evidence.

So, on the basis of current evidence they are Atheists, but simply
too emotionally afraid to admit their Atheism in public.

Agnostics
note that some theologians and philosophers have tried to to prove,
for ages, that God exists.

And failed miserably -- in every case.

Others have attempted to prove that God
does not exist.

Done. Ibid.

Neither side has convincingly succeeded at their
task.

Only to a fundie-brained idiot, or an intellectual coward
who falsely calls themselves -- Agnostic.

Therefore, discussion of this topic will always take place.
Consequently, a Big Eight newsgroup is necessary.

CHARTER: talk.agnosticism

The newsgroup talk.agnosticism is an unmoderated discussion forum
with heavy emphasis on dealing with any aspect of all religions and
the contrasting of said thoughts with the myriad of atheistic
counter thoughts and arguments.

A major goal of this group is the attempt at balancing the cold hard
facts of science, with the intense feelings generated by theology
and then potentially demonstrating that reality is somewhere in the
middle. A truly difficult but highly rewarding task that can, and
has, generated debate from all corners of the globe.

A second major goal is to offer a haven for those that wish to
discuss theology versus science in a neutral environment, without
being lamb basted by either the few but vocal strong atheists and
the equally vocal fanatical theists.

Posting of binaries is not permitted, with the exception of small
digital signatures such as PGP. Thou shalt not spam.

END CHARTER.

PROCEDURE

Because this post is a Request For Discussion, it is usually
referred to as an "RFD". When an RFD appears, it begins a process
called the newsgroup creation process. The first stage of that
process is the discussion period, and that's the stage that's now in
effect.

During the discussion period, the object is indeed to discuss
whether this proposal should be enacted, and to discuss any
potential problems with it and how to resolve them. Because the RFD
has a Followup-To header pointing to news.groups, discussion
will be posted there. Therefore, if you want to be heard in the
discussion, you should post your own posts in news.groups too.
Similarly, if you want to read the discussion, you should be
prepared to read it in news.groups.

During the discussion period, I may issue new drafts of the
proposal, perhaps with major changes: "2nd RFD", "3rd RFD", etc.
Please do not assume that these will be the same as this draft;
please make a point of reading each, if you wish to avoid surprises.

Following the discussion period, there may be a second stage, called
a voting period. This cannot begin until 21 days after the first
RFD, *and* 10 days after the last RFD. I decide whether to ask for
a voting period. If I do, then a neutral vote taker will post a
Call For Votes, or CFV, whose appearance begins the voting period.
The CFV will contain instructions on how to go about voting. You
cannot vote until the CFV appears. If you want to be sure of seeing
any CFV, but you don't want to read the discussion, you may wish to
subscribe to news.announce.newgroups, a low-volume group consisting
mostly of RFDs, CFVs, and related posts.

For further information about this process, please see "Guidelines
for Big Eight Newsgroup Creation" in news.announce.newgroups.
This post tries to obey all guidelines in that post and in "How to
Format and Submit a New Group Proposal". Please refer to these
documents if you have further questions.

DISTRIBUTION:

The RFD has been posted directly to the following newsgroups:

news.announce.newgroups
news.groups
talk.origins
alt.agnosticism

It will also be posted separately to:

humanities.philosophy.objectivism

Proponent: James Park <park.james@netzero.com>