Conservapedia aims to set Wikipedia right

Adam Turner
Monday, 05 March 2007 11:13

Opinion and Analysis

Wikipedia is "anti-American", "anti-Christian" and "anti-capitalism" according to US fundamentalist Christians who have set up their own online reference site, Conservapedia, to protect themselves from the evils of the world.

Conservapedia was created last November as a project for home-schooled children, based on the Wikipedia concept but without the "liberal bias". According to calculations by the site's owners, "Wikipedia is six times more liberal than the American public".

Interestingly, the most viewed item on Conservapedia is Examples of Bias in Wikipedia. Conservapedia's creators claim Wikipedia is anti-American because it doesn't use American spelling even though "most English-speaking [Wikipedia] users are American". They also claim Wikipedia is anti-Christian because some entries use BCE (Before the Common Era) rather than BC (Before Christ) to describe dates and it "refuses to give enough credit to Christianity for the Renaissance". They also insist that the entry on abortion  "reads like a brochure for the abortion industry" and that "facts against the theory of evolution are almost immediately censored".

To protect against such bias, Conservapedia's creators have introduced six Commandments which must be obeyed by users creating or editing entries. As well as only using American spelling and the term BC rather than CE, entries must be family-friendly, always site sources and not include personal opinion.

Conservapedia's first Commandment is clear; Everything you post must be true and verifiable.

According to Conservapedia's entry on Jesus; "Three days later He rose from the dead and appeared to others".

According to Conservapedia's entry on Gospels; "The greatest writing in the history of the world is the Gospel of John... This single book has done more to shape human thought and behavior than any other work".

According to Conservapedia's entry on The Da Vinci Code; "Dan Brown is responsible for feeding millions of readers a pack of lies cleverly wrapped up as a historically accurate novel".

Nope, can't see any personal opinion there.