[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia is already written from a scientific POV

Thu Jun 30 22:27:29 UTC 2005

On 6/30/05, Haukur Þorgeirsson <haukurth at hi.is> wrote:

> When we say "Homeopathy is a pseudoscience."
> we are also providing information by writing
> down a true statement. If I may paraphrase
> a couple of sentences from a certain sci-fi
> franchise:
> 
> "The first duty of every Wikipedian is to the truth,
> scientific truth, historical truth and personal truth.
> It is the guiding principle of Wikipedia."

You've mentioned four separate truths there.  

I'm of the opinion that Wikipedia tries to serve all of them, not just
the scientific truth.

In what order we serve them is the primary puzzle, and that differs on
a case by case basis.

For example, I think mention of Creationism is perfectly appropriate
for the article on [[Earth]].  Should it be the first mention?  No.

Mention of the scientific explanation of the origin of the earth
should similarly get mention in the [[Creationism]] article.

It's not our job to decide what view is the right one, even though
we've all probably already made our own decisions.  It is our job to
catalog and present the views, preferably thoroughly referenced and
cited, ordered by vague consensus judgements of levels of acceptance
and importance, and then let the readers make the final decision of
what they believe.

We are catalogers of existing third party views of the truth, nothing
more.  We shouldn't be here to judge the truth or falsehood of
anything; only the level of acceptance of various views of the truth.

-- 
Michael Turley
User:Unfocused

[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia is *already* written from a scientific POV

[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia is already written from a scientific POV