[WikiEN-l] NPOV discussion on historical context

Wed Jul 14 14:31:11 UTC 2004

As I understand it, writing in accord with NPOV policy
means that we treat our issues in light of their historical
development.

For instance, in our articles on Christianity and on Haredi
(Ultra-Orthodox) Judaism, we do not merely describe the way
that these religions exist now. Rather, we describe the
historical origins of these groups, as known from the best
evidence, archaeological, scientific, and from traditional
religious sources. These articles then describe changing
social, religious and political conditions, and describe
how people's beliefs and practices changed over time.

On a number of occasions, religious fundamentalist Jews,
Christians and Muslims have strenuously objected to these
treatments, claiming that they discriminate against their
religious beliefs. They prefer that the articles describe
their faith as they see it, which is from an ahistorical
perspective (e.g. the way things are is the way things have
always been; any differences are from heretical sects that
don't represent the real religion.) Fortunately, we have
reverted any such changes to the previously described
historical descriptions.

I am familiar with the NPOV article, but it doesn't really
mention historical development, even though we all
apparently understand it this way. Is there a formal
article on how and why Wikipedia NPOV polic means that
articles must be written in such a way as to show
historical context?  If so, where?  If not, can we edit and
add to the current NPOV article to mention this.

Robert (RK)

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