Now hold it a minute. You were the one who brought up "a belief or, disbelief in various deities may have an effect on voting decisions" and I took it to the next natural level of "singling out religion". Now you are foolishly trying to argue semantics ...
My subsequent reply was to your alteration of the thread title's question into singling out religion, (as opposed to the initial thread title question). While "god" and "religion" are inherently related, they aren't the same thing and the distinction is not a matter of "semantics", no matter how you try conflating the terms.
What question?
As reiterated several times now; the question as phrased in the thread title, (not the alternate version you posited, which has an alternate intent).
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You cannot qualify the title of a thread as being a restriction on discussion, especially when the original poster of the thread expands upon his statement/question indicated in the title.
Reference to the thread title's question does not restrict a discussion, it merely indicates that this was the initial question raised for discussion and provides initial context. That question was _not_ 'will religion have a role in how you vote?' You are certainly free to bring up alternate questions and comments during the course of discussion, (even changing the question), however it remains that the initial question was altered and shifted from "god" to "religion" by you.
You are pursuing a completely ignorant path here with your persistence that only the title matters as to what can be discussed in a thread.
Since I haven't stated or implied that "only the thread title matters", (only that it was the initial question), your assertion is false. It is entirely possible to post a thread title and have subsequent responses go off on related or, unrelated tangents. If someone posted, "do you like fruit?" and you replied 'why are you singling out oranges?', you'd have been shifting the initial context tangentially.
Are you going to vote Republican because you feel God wants you to?" is the first question within the thread.
A title is never to be considered as any meat of a thread, and is only to be used to identify the topic.
There are several threads in these forums which the title question is the operative "meat" and not merely an identifier of the thread. This evidence, (which can be made available through message IDs), contradicts your assertion regarding consideration.
When one simply wants to ask a question and it can fit within the title the question should always to be restated within the original post.
It was, ("Are you going to vote Republican because you feel God wants you to?"), and it still didn't ask 'will you vote republican because you feel a _religion_ wants you to?'
Also, when someone asks a question and expands upon that question providing more detail about what they are asking or clarifying possible ambiguity, you cannot claim that their clarification or stipulation were to be ignored because they made a more generalized statement or query earlier in their post.
Since I didn't claim any such thing, your comments are a non sequitur. Further, the subsequent question expanded the initial question by asking whether "...you going to vote Republican because you feel God wants you to?" and not ''will you vote republican because you feel a _religion_ wants you to?'
Additionally, because I am the one making a reply to a post of his pointing out his bias you cannot presume to tell me that I am only limited to what his thread title is for the purposes of what insight I gather about what he is proposing or asking.
Your "insight" regarded evident discomfort about the bias of the subsequent question, (which specified "republican" but, still didn't mention "religion"). Had the question been "are you going to vote republican because you feel your religion wants you to?", that question would have a different emphasis, (e.g., voting for Romney because a voter is mormon, etc.).
I have already mentioned the de facto standards and guidelines regarding thread posting earlier.
Your preferences are not de facto standards and guidelines. I've already mentioned the existence of several threads which consist of a question posed in the title and the content being simply replies to the title question. Reference message IDs remain available as evidence.
It is also rather simple of you to assume that a reply is to the title and not the original post. According to your reasoning, a first post could never be replied to and must be entirely ignored.
My comments contained no such "reasoning"; both the thread title question and the expanded version in the first post asked whether "god" affected voting, not "religion". The distinction is made so as to not conflate the two. There's a subtle difference between 'will satan have a role in how you vote?' and 'are you going to vote republican because a satanic religion wants you to?'