💾 Archived View for newsfin.us.to › hierarchy.gmi captured on 2024-12-17 at 09:34:56. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The newsfin hierarchy is a list of components that should prefix all newsfin groups for organization and ease of searching. They act like classification labels, similar to UDC, LCC, and Dewey Decimal. Not every newsfin group must be public to use these classification prefixes, but many are.
This document also lists some public Newsfin Groups that should be federated across misfin servers that have joined the Newsfin network. More details about how to join the network will be coming up soon.
Communities that want to create private newsfin groups are encouraged to do so under the communities.* hierarchy. For example, the tildes could place their groups under "communities.tilde.*". Location-based communities should place their groups under "communities.geo.*".
When bridging Newsfin Groups to Netnews, all Newsfin groups should be prepended with "newsfin.". When bridging Netnews groups to Newsfin, all groups should be prepended with "netnews.".
Each of these big ten will have sub-components to further organize them. These big ten must not be their own newsfin groups, with exception to newsfin.*
1. comp.* - Computers
2. communities.* - Communities, pubnixes, etc.
3. humanities.* - Humanities: literature, arts (performance and visual), philosophy, linguistics, media. Religion and theology have their own group below. Non-religious atheism should be placed here.
4. math.* - Mathematics
5. misc.* - Anything that doesn't fit the above
6. newsfin.* - Groups discussing Newsfin itself
7. rec.* - Recreation and Entertainment not already covered by Humanities, including groups for casual conversation, with exception to religions.
8. religion.* - Religion and Theology
9. sci.* - Physical Science
10. soc.* - Social Science: eduation, geography, history, politics, psychology, sociology
Sub-components:
Newsfin Groups:
Sub-components:
This currently has no sub-components or Newsfin Groups.
This currently has no sub-components.
Newsfin Groups:
This currently has no sub-components or groups.
For the study of and topics regarding religions, spiritualities, religious ideas and practices, and esotericisms. Includes atheism within religious traditions (e.g., Christian and Jewish Atheism), non-theism, and post-theism, but excludes atheism outside religious traditions; Non-religious atheism should be placed in humanities.
Sub-components:
Each religion should ideally be under all three sub-components, including non-theist religions. Theology is not limited to theism, and covers religious worldviews in general, including human suffering, religious ethics, religious metaphysics, and spirituality. Religious Studies focuses on what communities believe, Theology focuses on studying truth and reality. Rec is provided for religious groups to converse casually.
Newsfin Groups:
Each of these Newsfin Groups may also have sub-groups:
Sub-components:
For those wonering, yes, astrology is not a self-contained religion (and neither is hinduism), but it is a tradition in religions, both a religious belief and a religious practice. It's still in the religion category because it's a religious or spiritual idea, which is what is covered in the religion section.
The LCC seems to place astrology in an "Occult Sciences" category outside of religion. As someone with a B.A. in Theology who has studied different religions, I do not agree with the LCC classification system on this when in fact the "Occult Sciences" are ideas that are within and originate from many religions. While I'm not going to call myself a formal scholar, according to my background and field of study, I believe "Occult" is an outdated and not very useful term that should no longer be used by scholars. Magic, mysticism, astrology, oracles, witchcraft, demonology, fortune-telling are not only spiritual practices/beliefs, but they are integral in many religions in many different regions of the world, including the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The "Occult Sciences" are also in modern religions and spiritual movements, like wicca for example (which defined itself as a religion early on). But like I say above, this term is not correct and has an incorrect connotation to it. Occult has a Eurocentric focus, even though many of these religious traditions outside of Europe have many of these "occult" traditions in them.
To further demonstrate my point, Brittanica places occult and occultism (and astrology) under "Philosophy and Religion > Religious Beliefs", and describes occult as the following:
occult, a term that was originally used in Latin to designate the hidden or unseen properties of things and that, since the 16th century, has also been used to characterize religious traditions that include belief in unseen forces or that otherwise behave in a secretive or mysterious manner. Moreover, in the phrase the occult, the term designates a range of religious traditions, typically of a culturally alternative or marginalized nature, that modern scholars more commonly categorize under the label esotericism.
Astrology is placed in the theology, religious studies, and rec categories under religion because it is a religious *and* spiritual belief, and it is a religious topic discussed in theology, religious studies, and among believers.
Finally, I do not and will not support people stripping religions of their own religious ideas, which seems to be a trend in pop-spirituality books, those who don't study a wide diversity of religions and their origins, and especially those who I think use a needlessly over-restrictive definition of "religion" that excludes 90% of the world's religions.
Many of these esotericisms originate as religious traditions from within religious communities. For example, Judaism is integral to the origin and development of Kabbalah. Kabbalah is part of Judaism, even if it takes a life of its own outside of Judaism in modern spiritual movements.
Regarding comparative religion, the intention was for that to be under Religious Studies, because it is a branch of Religious Studies.