Re: [asa] Conservapedia

As noted by the New Scientist Article below this was started by Andy
Schafley, the son of the CWA founder. Schafley earlier crowed on
conservapedia of killing the requirement of the HPV vaccine in Texas and had
a link to an MSNBC interview of himself. I'm sure much of what is there is
now vandalism but it makes Christians and particularly home schoolers
look really stupid. For example, the "article" on Pilgrims. What is quoted
is the *entire* article and yet I could find four blatant errors in that
single sentence. Unlike wikipedia there has been no one coming along to
correct the article since December 5, 2006.

> Pilgrims were people (mostly puritans) [they were separatists] in the
> 1600's that traveled to the American Colonies [anachronism] because of
> persecution in England. These settlers started the very first settlement
> [wrong] in the American colonies, Jamestown [in modern-day Virginia, not
> modern-day Massachusetts].
>

I went to the user page for the author and this what the founder of the site
says of her work:

> Courtney,
>
> Superb posting!!!!
>
> --Aschlafly <http://www.conservapedia.com/User:Aschlafly> 12:22, 20
> December 2006 (EST)
>

Believe it or not, the stuff on evolution and creationism is actually the
highest quality part of this site! I often make comments on Paul Myers' blog
when his atheism gets especially outrageous. When Glenn asks why we aren't
more forcefully debating atheists like Myers, this is why. When the
anti-Christian commenters on Pharyngula were having a gigglefest I wanted to
crawl under a rock.

On 3/1/07, Freeman, Louise Margaret <lfreeman@mbc.edu> wrote:
>
> According to science news, it is a legit site, though it has been "edited"
> by certain opponents
> with intentionally outrageous entries.
>
>
> http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/02/conservative-rival-for-wikipedia.html
>
> Apparently it's not always easy to tell the spoof entries from actual
> ones, though.
>
> It would be interesting to see if a well-reasoned and fair article on
> theistic evolutionism would
> be allowed to stand.
>
> __
> Louise M. Freeman, PhD
> Psychology Dept
> Mary Baldwin College
> Staunton, VA 24401
> 540-887-7326
> FAX 540-887-7121
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Iain Strachan" <igd.strachan@gmail.com>
> To: ASA <asa@calvin.edu>
> Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 14:18:39 +0000
> Subject: [asa] Conservapedia
>
> > BTW I meant to mention that I'm not entirely sure that Conservapedia
> > isn't
> > an elaborate hoax. There have been many spoof wikipedias before.
> >
> > Also some Christians have a track record for gullibility - a few years
> > back
> > there was an email going round conservative Christian circles about an
> > article where J.K. Rowling (of Harry Potter fame) described herself as
> > a
> > Satanist. No one noticed that it was a spoof article from The Onion
> > website.
> >
> > The Kangaroo article might be a spoof (though Woodmorappe's famous
> > statement
> > about the animals being trained to poop into buckets on Noah's ark
> > wasn't a
> > spoof. Well, not unless Woodmorappe is a pesky liberal in disguise!
> > ;-)
> >
> > What do people think? If conservapedia is not a spoof, then it might
> > be
> > worthwhile trying to establish a presence there (if they re-enable
> > registration of accounts).
> >
> > Iain
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: Iain Strachan <igd.strachan@gmail.com>
> > Date: Mar 1, 2007 1:42 PM
> > Subject: Conservapedia
> > To: ASA <asa@calvin.edu>
> >
> > Much amusement and hilarity at my work was caused today when someone
> > stumbled upon
> >
> > www.conservapedia.com
> >
> > which is a Conservative "alternative" to wikipedia, peopled by
> > fundamentalists, as far as I can see.
> >
> > The entry on "kangaroo" caused a great deal of amusement. ( "designed
> > by
> > God for jumping" was especially appreciated!)
> >
> > Does anyone know about the origin of this site? I noted that there
> > wasn't
> > any article on Theistic Evolution, but when I tried to create an
> > account in
> > order to register and write one, but found that new registrations have
> > been
> > disabled.
> >
> > It did at least provide an opportunity to explain to a colleague of
> > mine who
> > describes himself as an atheist that there were ways you could be a
> > Christian and still accept evolution, so I suppose I should feel
> > grateful
> > for the opportunity. But seriously this is turning Christianity into a
> > laughing stock.
> >
> > If anyone finds a way of getting a registered account, let me know and
> > we'll
> > have a go at doing a Theistic Evolution article. Anything that gets
> > hacked
> > or distorted can be reported via a blog site if necessary.
> >
> >
> > Iain
> > --
> > -----------
> > After the game, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.
> >
> > - Italian Proverb
> > -----------
> >
> > --
> > -----------
> > After the game, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.
> >
> > - Italian Proverb
> > -----------
>
>
>
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>

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Received on Thu Mar 1 10:31:56 2007