attn Morrus & co - query re board rules - evolution

[S'mon]

Hi moderators - I have a question, this seemed the place for it.
I know that discussion of real-world religion & religious issues is against board rules. Presumably discussion of evolution _as a religious issue_ is thus against board rules, ie the evolution vs Creationism debate, which broke out re 'apes' before Piratecat closed it. Can I get clarification whether any mentioning of evolution _per se_ is against board rules? Some Creationists seem to take offense at any mentioning of evolution "as if it were true", but this approach could be applied to any scientific observation - world is round, world goes around sun, world was created 4.5 billion years ago rather than 4.5 thousand, etc. I expect it's ok to say "In my campaign, dragons evolved from tyrannosaurs", but is it against the board rules to say something like "humans are closely related to chimpanzees" or "chimpanzees are genetically more closely related to humans than either are to orang-utans"?

Thanks,

Simon

[Morrus]

Discussion of religion is not allowed. Discussion of scientific issues, even if only theoretical, is fine. "Evolution vs Creationism" contains religion; "Evolution" on its own does not.

[S'mon]

Originally Posted by Morrus

Discussion of religion is not allowed. Discussion of scientific issues, even if only theoretical, is fine. "Evolution vs Creationism" contains religion; "Evolution" on its own does not.

Thanks Morrus. So the 'ape' thread was ok until Kai Lord chipped in? See:
Hey! That's not what an ape is!

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by S'mon

Thanks Morrus. So the 'ape' thread was ok until Kai Lord chipped in? See:
Hey! That's not what an ape is!

Basically, yeah. "I don't believe the theory of evolution is true" is OK, but "Evolution is religious" is not. One disputes the validity of the theory, which is all fine and dandy here, the other brings up religion, which means it should be taken elsewhere.

(Oh, and to counter the obvious "argument" against this, "Evolution" is not "religion" according to the EN World messageboard rules definition, which may or may not differ from anyone's personal opinion or definition.)

[S'mon]

Great, thanks again. I was a bit worried I was violating board rules myself by talking about chimps & humans & such being all apes, I had rather forgotten that anyone could see it as an inherently religious topic.

[MerakSpielman]

S'mon, if you ever get caught up in a debate on evolution (in another forum of course) here is a good link: Observed Instances of Speciation. This also promotes Morrus' views that evolution is a scientific topic, since religion isn't mentioned in these experiments.