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The point of contention is not necessarily debates surrounding religion but how these are carried out. Going to a post mentioning religion and saying "Religion is bad" is something we want to avoid and it's different from having the occasional debate. In the former case it's an unnecessary comment.

If religious users went to posts that mention atheism and said "you should believe" everyone would also quickly grow tired of it. But so far I (personally, I emphasize that) have not seen anyone behave like this. That's the reason I specifically mentioned our atheists, however I reiterate that the reminder goes for both religious and non-religious users.

Essentially, religious and non-religious comrades shouldn't be harassed over it and shouldn't have to defend themselves over their beliefs. I'm personally an atheist, and I think all of our admin team is, so it's not like there's a hidden agenda to start promoting religion on Lemmygrad or anything.

Regarding bans, I'd like to point out they were temp bans for people that kept being "in your face" about their dislike -- sometimes hatred -- of religion, sometimes after repeated warnings. At this stage it constitutes harassment but we're very wary of banning anyone permanently. Maybe we should start, because I believe you when you say you've felt harassed for talking about atheism before. Please keep in mind that we're a small team of admins, and when posts reach over 100 comments (as it usually happens when there's a big debate), we don't have the capacity of moderating all of it partly due to our size, and partly due to the tools Lemmy has to moderate. In that case we rely on reports.

I'm also wary of simply deleting comments because I believe people should stand behind what they say and not have it washed away by a moderator so they can get away with it if they're being harassing. In this case I think when making a report, users should point out that they want us to delete the comment if it targets them.

The links between all of us here is that we're all communists and MLs. I assure you religious comrades know it's a contradiction to believe in God. But they're not the only group to have contradictory beliefs, all of us retain some idealism in some way.

Yo! I don't intend to invalidate your opinion of religion. But I would like to share a personal counter opinion of mine. In my 20s, I was an atheist and severely depressed. Life had no meaning, no objective, etc. And I saw that as a bad thing. After finding Buddhism, more specifically, Zen Buddhism, as described by Alan Watts, I found peace. With the knowledge that life was to be taken like a dance. Pointlessly going nowhere, but enjoying the trip. And so I'm still here. I use this as an anecdote of religion being good.

Of course, religion can be used to oppress, like anything else. Oppression using kindness as pretense exists. But I find it's better to look at it in a case by case basis, rather than generalizing. If being religious helps you live life, then it's good. If it doesn't help you, then it's bad. Those are my 2 cents on this, anyway.