I don't think it's that much of a problem. We pretty much begged for those type of topics to be allowed for discussion. Political and Religious discussions used to be restricted to The Black Chapter and it was well maintained. The only difference between now and the days back during the Black Chapter is that the individuals who weren't offering any type of intellectual insight or who simply were not capable of carrying a mature conversation were kicked out of the group... and the moderators aren't going to ban people simply because they don't know how to debate a topic without being offended or having a sound basis of knowledge on the topic at hand. One thing you have to think of is this: what are the hot topics? What are people talking about? And I don't mean on the forums, but in the real world. Because the forums on B.net are essentially a digital headquarters for discussions on particular topics. "Off Topic" is for everything that doesn't have a specific forum. Religion and Politics don't have a specific forum and they are HUGE topics in the world today. Personally, I find the religious and political debates to be some of the few intellectual conversations worth joining in on. I tend to stay away from all the stupid image shares and random 5 word posts filled with half-assed responses. If you get rid of the off-topic forum, this place loses a whole of the community "feel", if you know what I mean.

Here have a beer,spoken like a true American!