Conservapedia takes on Wikipedia 'bias'

Conservapedia takes on Wikipedia 'bias'
By Iain Thomson
28 February 2007

For when facts are just too left wing.

Popular online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has a new rival in the form of Conservapedia, which aims to correct what it claims is a left-wing anti-Christian bias.

Conservapedia was set up by Andrew Schlafly, son of conservative commentator Phyllis Schafly, and has over 3,500 entries which counter what is seen as Wikipedia's "biased" view.

This bias includes occasionally using British rather than American spellings, and using the dating term CE (Common Era) rather than AD (Anno Domini) to refer to the first year of the Christian calendar.

"Conservapedia is an online resource and meeting place where we favor Christianity and America," the front page reads.

"Conservapedia has easy-to-use indexes to facilitate review of topics. You will much prefer using Conservapedia compared to Wikipedia if you want concise answers free of 'political correctness'."

However, some users may object to certain entries, such as that for 'Atheism': "Since atheists have no God, as a philosophical framework atheism simply provides no logical basis for any moral standard.

"They live their lives according to the rule that 'anything goes'. In recent years, this has led to a large rise in crime, drug use, pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancy, pedophilia and bestiality."

The entry for 'Einstein' claims that his work had nothing to do with the development of the atomic bomb, and that nothing useful has even been built based on the Theory of Relativity.

The site's front page offers: "Did you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept? Faith is complete trust or confidence in an unseen, loving power. Its root is the Latin word 'fidere', meaning 'to trust'. Jesus was unique in preaching the significance of faith and it is exclusive to Christianity. No other religion is based on faith as distinguished from mere belief."

However, it seems that the site may also have been attacked by leftist subversives. For example, Bill Clinton's Conservapedia page includes the following commentary: "Bill Clinton managed to serve two terms without botching the prosecution of two wars, manipulating intelligence, engaging in a systematic program of torture, or mishandling the federal response to flooding of a major American city. Obviously, he is the devil incarnate."