Wide-eyed disbelief
Really, I don’t know where to start. Well, no, that’s not a lie, I do: in its own words, “Conservapedia is a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American.” I don’t know where to go from there. I want to…edit…I want to comment…I…
ech, really, I’ll just drop in some good examples and let you go from there.
- The Conservapedia Commandments, in which the first rule is”Everything you post must be true and verifiable.”
- On the heels of that, the origins of the Kangaroo: “Like all modern animals, modern kangaroos originated in the Middle East[1] and are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah’s Ark prior to the Great Flood” A baramin, by the way, is “a lineage of earthly life that that was originally created by God during the Creation Week.”
- Faith is unique to Christianity. A quote from Jesus is somehow proof that Christians mean it more than anyone else.
- The home page proclaims it has “over 3,400 educational, clean and concise entries on historical, scientific, legal, and economic topics,” and is therefore “one of the largest user-controlled free encyclopedias on the internet.” I suppose that (uncited, unverified) claim can be made easily enough when you fill your info resource with entries like James Buchanan, for example, which says in its entirety: “Was the 15th president of the United States. He served as the president from 1857-1861.”
If I were a Conservative I’d probably be annoyed at this–not all Conservatives are Christian Creationists. But I guess funadamentala-christia-creationapedia.com doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.
February 25th, 2007 01:13
Check out the entry for Earth.
Before they locked down editing, a fair number of pranksters got their mitts on it, so it’s very difficult to tell which pages are pranks and which reflect ideologically pure authoritarianism (nee “convervatism”).
Schwab
February 25th, 2007 10:56
This site is pure heaven for pranksters. It’s downright cathartic.
The servers were dead a day or so ago, presumably from an invasion. Check out the page on gravity, for instance.
February 26th, 2007 08:34
And do please read the page about unicorns.
February 26th, 2007 10:22
Yeah, it made Pharyngula on Friday (which is where I saw it) and Sensible Erection over the weekend. The folks at SE are smart enough to plan to go back in a few months for their invasion.
February 26th, 2007 11:11
The servers seem to be dead again. I’m trying to waste time browsing that site and if it works, it’s slower than hell. But mostly I’m being told my connection is being refused. *sigh* I so want to laugh at them.
February 26th, 2007 16:18
One of my favorites:
http://www.conservapedia.com/The_Law_of_Mass_Conversation
February 26th, 2007 21:34
The urge to create a hoax website about “baraminology” and then link to it from Conservapedia is almost overwhelming.
February 26th, 2007 22:34
thanks for sticking up for the regular-version consies, spinn. i’m not one myself, but the idea that these people presume to speak for them truly bothered me.
February 28th, 2007 03:22
Check the link mid-page alluding to “Blog of the Gods”.
http://www.conservapedia.com/Jesus
February 28th, 2007 14:01
Baraminology…
Isn’t a Baramin that weird electronic musical instrument they used a lot in old science fiction movies?
Schwab
February 28th, 2007 23:18
Close, the Barimin is like a Theramin, only it runs at a lower voltage and is two octaves lower.
But a Baramin is actually the metric measurement for humidity. For example, if I slam a 20 Oz bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper and belch in a sealed 1m x 1m x 1m room at sea level, the relative humidity will increase by 1 baramin. Then I will suffocate.