Answers that count religious texts as fiction

Question

I understand that questions based on counting religious texts as fiction are off topic here. What about answers (such as this one) which count a religious text (in this case the Bible) as fiction? I suppose they are considered inappropriate, but what are we supposed to do when we see one? Can we flag a moderator to have it removed? Is "not an answer" the right reason for flagging, or is it "rude or abusive", or do we need a custom reason?

Edit. I posted this question after reading the old question which this allegedly duplicates. The old question concerned questions about religious texts, and it was decided that such questions could be closed as being off topic. I did not see anything there about answers that cite religious texts as fiction, and the remedy "vote to close as off topic" does not apply to answers.

Answer 1

Paraphrasing Beofett's answer here

Any answer which states (or even strongly implies) that a religious work is a work of fiction should be immediately flagged for moderator attention, pending deletion.

"I think that a ban on questions on religious works is appropriate. It leaves us open to too much controversial debate, potentially offended visitors, and the likelihood of duplicated content with other SE sites (i.e. the ones dedicated towards those specific religions)."

If you feel like you want to go further, you always have the option of downvoting and/or leaving a comment explaining our general policies.

Answer 2

There're a few things to consider here:

Offensive content should be flagged to the moderators.

If it's obviously offensive or you, yourself find it offensive then please flag it as such. This is the flag option to select:

Things I would flag as this is explicitly saying that a religion is fictional. Subtly implying it as such is not for instance offensive to me, but I would 100% accept a flag from someone saying they were offended by such implications. I'd much rather listen to the community speaking up about it than impose what I thought the community wanted.

Non-fiction sources are simply poor answer fodder

The other side of the coin is that, answers that use a non-fiction source are simply poor answers in some case. First though, let's be clear on which meaning of fiction I'm referring to:

1. Literature in the form of prose, especially novels, that describes imaginary events and people. synonyms: novels, stories, creative writing, imaginative writing, works of the imagination, prose literature, narration, story telling

2. something that is invented or untrue. "they were supposed to be keeping up the fiction that they were happily married"
   synonyms: fabrication, invention, lies, fibs, concoction, untruth, falsehood, fantasy, fancy, illusion, sham, nonsense;

I would say the majority of religious texts may come under the category of Stories, or Narration implying they are invented or untrue is likely not the intention of the original author. The accepted answer on the related meta post uses the idea of whether it would be in the sci-fi or fantasy section of a book shop. While it's not an exhaustive criterion, it's probably easier than trying to understand the intention of the original author in some cases.

By either metric most answers that treat religious texts (regardless whether they're Judeo-Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist, Druidic, Pagan, Ancient Roman, Ancient Greek etc....) are simply not providing a good answer, and I'd expect them to get the same response as using Time Cube as a scientific source on Physics.SE - it's just not on topic. Downvote and move on.

Inspiration isn't implying fiction

There is one exception though. If a question is asking for the inspiration behind a work of fiction, answers citing religious texts should be considered valid. That is, you can change the wording of:

What's the earliest reference to type of thing (e.g. talking snakes, transmutation alchemy, angels with more than two wings) in science-fiction/fantasy?

Which is very broad, assuming that one thing or trope has a definite single earliest reference.

To be more clearly:

What's the inspiration behind definite example of thing (e.g. Mrs. Plithiver in Legend of the Guardians, Philosopher's stone in Full Metal Alchemist, Evangelion).

Answer 3

Treating religious texts as fiction is a surefire way to start wars. Let's not do that. Also, it does not adhere to the "be nice" policy of Stack Exchange.

Answers that treat religious works as fiction should be flagged for moderator attention, to be deleted as soon as possible.

However, the example used does not do that. It merely shows that the idea of blighted lands is much older than last century fiction.

As such, that answer should not have been deleted. Edited for clarity at most.

Answer 4

There have been a spate of 'Earliest example' questions.

I think these are on topic for the site, as it is interesting to see how speculative ideas have emerged and changed over time as society and science has changed.

However some ideas may also have roots in religious texts. I'm thinking of this as an example. It is not commenting on the on the text in question, just mentioning that it contains an idea.

I think this is not going to be uncommon with such questions, many fantasy and scifi ideas may have roots in religious texts. They are some of the oldest texts that exist and they contain many fantastical ideas.

I also think it is perfectly valid as an answer and is not offensive unless a user explicitly cites it as fiction or untrue.

Answer 5

Are stories from e.g. Gilgameš or Herakles considered as not religious? If so how those different from stories of Jesus of Nazareth.

Answer 6

I would say this a really basic problem with a basic solution.

Story itself means a relation of events, there is no implication that it must be true or fictional. So, when someone is asking for the first occurence of whatsoever, the bible or a Cicero's text or a fantasy book are all at the same level of dignity; saying that the Ramayana (for example) is not a story is against logic itself.

"What has been the first work of fiction to"...well, no need to offende someone by taking the Qur'an as an example.

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Side note: unless there is a specific .se for literature (I didn't check, honestly), all the questions that try to figure the first reference to something (and/or the inspiration for something) in a neutral way should be really appreciated on SF&F as they gives people a way to better understand where the things they like come from.

Answer 7

Only if it's in an offensive way. There are hundreds of religions and some are blatantly jokes, some might be seen as a joke but are practised seriously, some are just dead-serious. A bunch of them are grey areas regarding seriousness. Not allowing for an answer to treat joke religions as fiction would result in a very silly answer.

I would flag for moderator attention, only if the answer is offensive. If the question is something like an identify this fictional story and someone suggests the Bible, that would be very offensive to Christians. But if the answer does nothing more or less than answer the question, and it treats religious texts as fiction it doesn't have to be offensive. Most Christians no longer believe the earth is 8000 years old, even though the Bible says so, there are parts of all great religions that are already widely regarded as fiction, why should we pretend we're stupid?