[WikiEN-l] Re: Categories and NPOV

Thu Jun 30 17:24:27 UTC 2005

On 6/30/05, Timwi <timwi at gmx.net> wrote:
> Maybe the only way out of this is to call the categories something
> unwieldy-but-NPOV like [[Category:Theories or beliefs widely considered
> pseudoscience]]...

Well, "pseudoscience" is not something "widely" considered -- it is
something which is reflective of the consideration of a relatively
small community (the scientific community, very small in the world at
large). And if we have, [[Category:Theories or beliefs considered by
mainstream scientists to be pseudoscience]] why would we not also have
[[Category:Theories or beliefs considered by fundamentalist Christians
to be lies of Satan]]?

The American Association for the Advancement of Science claims 10
million members. According to the Wikipedia article [[Evolution
poll]], far far FAR greater numbers in the USA believe in some variety
of Creationism. 45% of citizens in 2001 believe in straight Biblical
creationism -- some some 126 million people or so! (yuck!) So appeals
to consensus don't help us much, unless we start plugging in the
*specific* communities we are talking about. I can't see any good
reason not to label Evolution as a [[Satanic lie]] if we'll label
Creationism [[Pseudoscience]] -- they've certainly got us beat in the
numbers game! (Sigh...)

FF