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

Thu Jun 30 21:47:51 UTC 2005

> Establishing the truth of a proposition, however obvious, as this is,
> is not the purpose of Wikipedia, nor the purpose of categories.
> Categories are an aid to the reader to in finding information.

I don't understand the dichotomy you seem
to be trying to uphold. Wikipedia provides
information but not truth? What is truth?

Here's the start of our article on the Eiffel Tower:

"The Eiffel Tower ... is a metallic tower built
on the Champ de Mars in Paris ... and is nowadays
the most famous landmark and symbol of Paris."

This is information. And truth.

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."

When reasonable people interpret available data
in different ways we try to describe each position
fairly.

Then there are some unreasonable positions. Those
are usually dealt with in separate articles and
otherwise ignored. Here's an excerpt from the
start of the [[Apollo program]] article:

"Project Apollo ... was devoted to the goal of landing a man on the Moon
and returning him safely to Earth within the decade of the 1960s. This
goal was achieved with the Apollo 11 mission in 1969."

There are many people who disagree with this but
since their position is unreasonable it is not dealt
with in the main article but relegated to a separate
article. Now, *that* article will try to fairly present
the views of those who believe that the Apollo program
was a hoax. However, by choosing to privilege the
reasonable view in the main article Wikipedia has
*already* chosen a position, whatever category the
hoax article is put into.

Or let's take [[Earth]]. Here's an excerpt from the lead:

"The planet formed around 4.57 billion (4.57×109) years ago and shortly
thereafter acquired its single natural satellite, the Moon."

There are many people who disagree with this. We try to
describe their positions fairly in separate articles,
e.g. [[Creationism]]. The article on creationism may
try to be scrupulously fair to the creationists but the
bottom line is that Wikipedia has *already* acknowledged
the scientific facts as superior to the creationist
theories (at least the "Young Earth" variety) by
including them in main articles like [[Earth]].

Including [[Creationism]] in [[Category:Pseudoscience]]
is just icing on a cake that has already been baked.

Regards,
Haukur

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

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