8 ms·

I’m curious, why do you have a policy against hosting religious books?

trillic 3y ago
I'd imagine that if they host one religions books, many more religions will come out of the wood work and demand their books also be included, leading the site to be largely religious texts.
- krapp 3y ago
  Numerous sites, platforms, stores, etc. host religious books, and that has never happened.
weijiacheng 3y ago
The site actually hosts several "religious books" (try filtering by the "Spirituality" tag -- I've even produced several books on religious topics myself for SE). What it doesn't host are "Religious texts from modern world religions" (what some might call "scriptures," e.g. the Bible or the Quran) which is a much narrower category than "religious books." As a religious person myself, I actually think this policy is very sensible. Most (nearly all?) religious texts of major world religions were originally written in languages other than English, and so if SE were to try to host those texts the site would have to make an editorial call about which translations of those texts are the "best." That quickly enters very murky theological territory, where one side of a given religion might push for one particular translation, whereas another side would push for another translation. To give the Bible as an example, Catholics and Orthodox Christians include the deuterocanonical books (e.g. Tobit, Judith, Sirach) in their canons whereas Protestants exclude these. Would the SE version of the Bible include these? Some American fundamentalist Christians claim that the King James Version is the only valid English translation of the Bible, whereas the Revised Version (also available in the public domain) is based on more reliable Greek manuscripts. But some conservative Christians reject the Revised Version and its descendants based on certain theological premises... Do you catch my drift? IMHO it's very sensible for SE to avoid these sorts of debates entirely by sticking to books where you could argue (with some degree of handwaving) that there really is a "best version" :)
- devashishp 3y ago
  I think that makes sense, but it still seems a bit arbitrary, I don’t see bookshops having these issues
  - weijiacheng 3y ago
    Yes, bookshops will sell one version of the Bible to Catholics, another to Protestants, another to fundamentalists, another to progressives, etc. :) In contrast, part of the SE editorial philosophy is that it tries to host the best (based on academic scholarship, translation quality, academic acclaim, etc.) version of each text available in the public domain, which excludes that "something for everyone" sort of play available to a commercial bookstore. You could rightly argue that this is losing something (it's good to have multiple translations to compare if you're reading a text for critical purposes), but the SE editorial philosophy avoids a certain amount of confusion and clutter for the general reader. So there's a deliberate (you could call it "arbitrary" in some sense, if you wish) tradeoff being made here.
  - opminion 3y ago
    US Barnes & Noble can have a few meters of shelves with different versions of the Bible, and a buying guide. It is quite striking if you are not used to it.
  - pasc1878 3y ago
    Part of the issue would be that the nooks are translations and the copywriter data would be from the translation date. So modern versions of e.g. the Bible could not be in Standard Ebooks. So easiest to not carry any translations. Bookshops have no problem with this as part of the purchase price will go to the copyright owners of the translation.
    - mahalex 3y ago
      Modern versions of e.g. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" could not be in Standard Ebooks. So easiest to not carry any translations?
pard68 3y ago
My thought was that many/most religious works are public domain and are already readily available elsewhere.
- kyawzazaw 3y ago
  Actually all of what SE has now has content on different sites

I'd imagine that if they host one religions books, many more religions will come out of the wood work and demand their books also be included, leading the site to be largely religious texts.

krapp 3y ago
Numerous sites, platforms, stores, etc. host religious books, and that has never happened.

weijiacheng 3y ago

The site actually hosts several "religious books" (try filtering by the "Spirituality" tag -- I've even produced several books on religious topics myself for SE). What it doesn't host are "Religious texts from modern world religions" (what some might call "scriptures," e.g. the Bible or the Quran) which is a much narrower category than "religious books." As a religious person myself, I actually think this policy is very sensible. Most (nearly all?) religious texts of major world religions were originally written in languages other than English, and so if SE were to try to host those texts the site would have to make an editorial call about which translations of those texts are the "best." That quickly enters very murky theological territory, where one side of a given religion might push for one particular translation, whereas another side would push for another translation. To give the Bible as an example, Catholics and Orthodox Christians include the deuterocanonical books (e.g. Tobit, Judith, Sirach) in their canons whereas Protestants exclude these. Would the SE version of the Bible include these? Some American fundamentalist Christians claim that the King James Version is the only valid English translation of the Bible, whereas the Revised Version (also available in the public domain) is based on more reliable Greek manuscripts. But some conservative Christians reject the Revised Version and its descendants based on certain theological premises... Do you catch my drift? IMHO it's very sensible for SE to avoid these sorts of debates entirely by sticking to books where you could argue (with some degree of handwaving) that there really is a "best version" :)

devashishp 3y ago
I think that makes sense, but it still seems a bit arbitrary, I don’t see bookshops having these issues
- weijiacheng 3y ago
  Yes, bookshops will sell one version of the Bible to Catholics, another to Protestants, another to fundamentalists, another to progressives, etc. :) In contrast, part of the SE editorial philosophy is that it tries to host the best (based on academic scholarship, translation quality, academic acclaim, etc.) version of each text available in the public domain, which excludes that "something for everyone" sort of play available to a commercial bookstore. You could rightly argue that this is losing something (it's good to have multiple translations to compare if you're reading a text for critical purposes), but the SE editorial philosophy avoids a certain amount of confusion and clutter for the general reader. So there's a deliberate (you could call it "arbitrary" in some sense, if you wish) tradeoff being made here.
- opminion 3y ago
  US Barnes & Noble can have a few meters of shelves with different versions of the Bible, and a buying guide. It is quite striking if you are not used to it.
- pasc1878 3y ago
  Part of the issue would be that the nooks are translations and the copywriter data would be from the translation date. So modern versions of e.g. the Bible could not be in Standard Ebooks. So easiest to not carry any translations. Bookshops have no problem with this as part of the purchase price will go to the copyright owners of the translation.
  - mahalex 3y ago
    Modern versions of e.g. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" could not be in Standard Ebooks. So easiest to not carry any translations?

pard68 3y ago

My thought was that many/most religious works are public domain and are already readily available elsewhere.

kyawzazaw 3y ago
Actually all of what SE has now has content on different sites