6.0592 Electric Mystic: USENET Religious Studies Groups (1/187)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 15 Mar 1993 19:41:26 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0592. Monday, 15 Mar 1993.

Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 10:43:18 EST
From: MICHAEL STRANGELOVE <441495@ACADVM1.UOTTAWA.CA>
Subject: EMG: USENET Religious Studies Newsgroups

The following is from Volume Two of the Electric Mystic's Guide to
the Internet. Please inform me of any corrections or additions.
- Michael Strangelove, 441495@acadvm1.uottawa.ca
___________________________________________________________________


USENET -- General Information

USENET is actually a worldwide network of over 10,000 hosts and
300,000 users. Unlike BITNET and Internet, USENET is not an academic
network. Most of USENET's sites are commercial, but advertising is
strictly forbidden on USENET. USENET supports one service only,
called news or newsgroups, and is available at most Internet sites.
Unfortunately, USENET newsgroups are largely unavailable to BITNET
sites. There are over 300 different newsgroups available, but not
all sites carry all newsgroups. The following section provides
information on all Religious Studies related newsgroups. It should
be noted that many USENET newsgroups have little academic value as
communication and research forums. As there are a number of
different software platforms for reading USENET newsgroups, this
guide cannot give specific details on accessing and reading USENET
newsgroups. Users should take local courses and obtain manuals on
their site's USENET news reader.

Note: If you have access to both USENET and Internet e-
mail, USENET is generally preferable as a method of
access, as it requires fewer network resources per
additional subscriber. For those who do not have access
to USENET, Internet and BITNET subscription information
is given for newsgroups that are duplicated (gatewayed)
as lists or interest groups.

The following helpful information files can be found in the
newsgroup news.announce.newusers. All of the following are
recommended reading for all USENET users.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
A Primer on How to Work With the USENET Community
Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
Hints on Writing Style for USENET
What is USENET?
Rules for Posting to USENET

Other useful USENET information files are:

List of Moderators

This is a list of active moderated newsgroups and their moderators.
These are newsgroups where each posting is screened by a moderator
before being forwarded to the entire newsgroup.

List of Active Newsgroups, Part I and II

This is a directory of over 300 currently active USENET newsgroups.

Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part I, II and III

This is a list of mailing lists primarily available through Internet
and UUCP networks. This directory does not include BITNET LISTSERV
Lists.

Introduction to news.announce

This is a description of the newsgroup news.announce. News.announce
is a newsgroup that posts important announcements about USENET.
All USENET users should subscribe to this newsgroup.

List of Periodic Informational Postings, Part I and II

Many newsgroups contain articles that are posted on a periodic
basis. These articles tend to be general information files useful to
novice and experienced users. The List of Periodic Informational
Postings, Part I and II documents the majority of these periodic
postings. This list is a good directory to information files that
exist on USENET newsgroups.

Accessing USENET Documents

The above USENET documents can be found in the newsgroup
news.newusers.questions and read from within a USENET newsreader.
Theses documents can also be retrieved via FTP from the node pit-
manager.mit.edu (18.172.1.27) in the /pub/usenet/news.answers/
directory. They can also be retrieved via mail, send a mail message
to mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu containing the command HELP for
more information.


USENET Religious Studies Related Newsgroups

The following is a listing of all newsgroups of interest to
Religious Studies fields. These groups are divided into moderated
and umoderated groups. In moderated newsgroups each posting is
screened by a moderator before being forwarded to the entire
newsgroup.

Moderated Newsgroups

To post to a moderated newsgroup, send your article to the
Submission Address. The newsgroup moderator will then forward your
posting to the group. Inappropriate submissions will be returned
with an explanation. In some cases submissions may be sent directly
to the newsgroup, where it will be automatically forwarded to the
moderator.

Discussion of the Baha'i Faith -- soc.religion.bahai

Submission Address: Direct to soc.religion.bahai or to
bahai-faith@oneworld.wa.com

The newsgroup will act as a non-threatening forum for discussing and
sharing information about the tenets, history, and texts of the
Baha'i Faith. Prior to its formation there was a good amount of
traffic on this topic in other newsgroups; this group provides a
"single point of contact" for such discussion. Examples of posts
that fall within the group's scope are: The Baha'i Faith's relation
to other religions; relevance of Baha'i principles to current world
events/problems; analysis of particular scriptural passages or
themes; and general questions and answers.

The soc.religion.bahai newsgroup is gatewayed to USENET from the
moderated Internet mailing list, bahai-faith, which shares
soc.religion.bahai's policies. Those without USENET access should
address subscription and unsubscription requests to
bahai-faith-request@oneworld.wa.com.

Moderator: Aaron Nabil Eastlund, nabil@cse.ogi.edu

Christianity and Related Topics --
soc.religion.christian

Submission Address:

Moderator: Charles Hedrick, christian-request@aramis.rutgers.edu

Discussions of Eastern Religions --
soc.religion.eastern

Submission Address: sre@cse.ogi.edu
religion-islam-request@ncar.ucar.edu

The aim of the newsgroup is to provide a forum for the discussion of
Eastern metaphysics, theology, and logic. The word eastern in the
title of the newsgroup signifies religions with origins in
South/South-East/Far-East Asia. For example, Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, and so on. All people, no
matter what their religious background, can post articles in this
newsgroup. Articles about western religious systems
(Judaism/Christianity/Islam) are also welcome if the aim is to make
objective comparisons of these systems with those discussed in this
newsgroup.

Moderator: Aaron Nabil, nabil@qiclab.scn.rain.com

Discussions of the Islamic Faith -- soc.religion.islam

Submission Address: religion-islam-request@ncar.ucar.edu

This newsgroup is for the discussion of issues directly relating to
Islam. This includes theology, comparative studies with other
religions, announcements of Islamic conferences and sources of
information for Muslims, Ramadan, and so on. Academic language must
be used. Verbal abuse, personal attacks, flames, profanity or
insults will not be forwarded for posting to the group.

Moderator: Asim M. Mughal, mughal@romeo.caltech.edu


Unmoderated Newsgroups

To post to umoderated newsgroups, simply send you mail message
directly to the newsgroup via USENET. The titles of these newsgroups
are descriptive of their focus.

Christian Music, Contemporary and Traditional --
rec.music.christian

Esoteric and Minority Religions and Philosophies --
talk.religion.newage

Evolutionism versus Creationism -- talk.origins

Jewish Culture and Religion -- soc.culture.jewish

Religious, Ethical and Moral Issues and Implications --
talk.religion.misc

END OF FILE