About
Conservapedia is an alternative internet encyclopedia written from a fundamentalist Christian conservative point of view. Although it was the first partisan encyclopedia of its kind, it is perhaps best known across the internet for hosting the Conservative Bible Project, and for being the target of a Colbert Nation raid as a result.
History
Conservapedia was launched on November 21st, 2006[1] by Andrew Schlafly, a lawyer, conservative activist, and homeschool teacher.[2] Frustrated by what he perceived to be liberal bias on Wikipedia, Schlafly founded the site with the intention of providing an alternative to the popular internet encyclopedia.
Within a year of its creation, Conservapedia had been reported on by the New York Times,[3] the Guardian,[4] the Los Angeles Times,[5] and NPR.[6]
Features
The site features articles written in support of conservatism,[7] Christian fundamentalism,[8] American exceptionalism,[9] and creationism,[10] alongside articles denouncing liberalism,[11] atheism,[12] homosexuality,[13] and evolution.[14] It has also gained considerable notoriety online for its rejection of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, arguing that the theory was created so that liberals could use it to justify moral relativism.[15]
It has 40,500 articles and over one million edits as of September 2014.[16]
Conservative Bible Project
The site’s most well-known project to date was launched in 2008. Named the Conservative Bible Project,[17] its stated purpose is to create a “Conservative Bible”[18] by translating Biblical scripture in a way which purportedly eliminates the perceived liberal bias and outdated terminology of popular modern Bible translations.
Notable changes in the Conservative Bible include:
- ”Liberal” replaced by ”generous”,[19] to negate the political connotations of the former,
- ”Wickedness” replaced by ”liberal values”,[20]
- “Cast lots” replaced by “gambled”,[21] to ensure that the Bible is interpreted as being opposed to gambling,
- ”Great burdens” replaced by ”burdensome regulations and transaction costs”.[22]
The project has received large amounts of criticism from both liberal sources such as Salon,[23] and conservative sources such as WorldNetDaily.[24]
Colbert Nation Raid
On October 7th, 2009, Stephen Colbert mentioned the Conservative Bible Project during the Tip/Wag section of his show The Colbert Report, mocking the project’s goal of introducing “free market parables” into the Bible.
Colbert encouraged his audience members to visit Conservapedia and to write him into the Conservative Bible in place of God. The site crashed less than five minutes after the request due to the surge of visitors, and the administrators were forced to lock down the Bible page for several days afterwards.[25]
RationalWiki
RationalWiki was launched in April 2007[1] as a direct response and counterpoint to Conservapedia. Although its original purpose was to monitor the activities of Conservapedia and the online presence of Andrew Schlafly,[26] it has since become an extensive encyclopedia in its own right, written in a self-described “snarky” tone.[27]
Its articles tend to focus on refuting pseudoscience[28] and promoting knowledge of logic and logical fallacies, but it also frequently approaches politics from a leftist-liberal perspective.[29]
It has since overtaken Conservapedia in popularity.[30][31]
Search Interest
External References
[1]Wikipedia – Conservapedia
[2]Wikipedia – Andrew Schlafly
[3]The New York Times – Conservapedia: See Under Right
[4]The Guardian – Rightwing website challenges ‘liberal bias’ of Wikipedia
[5]Los Angeles Times – A conservative’s answer to Wikipedia
[6]NPR– Conservapedia: Data for Birds of a Political Feather?
[7]Conservapedia – Conservative
[8]Conservapedia – Fundamentalism
[9]Conservapedia – United States of America
[10]Conservapedia – Creationism
[13]Conservapedia – Homosexuality
[15]Conservapedia – Theory of relativity
[16]Conservapedia – Statistics
[17]Conservapedia – Conservative Bible Project
[18]Conservapedia – Conservative Bible
[19]Conservapedia – Second Epistle to the Corinthians
[21]Conservapedia – Bible Translation Project
[23]Salon – Actual verses from the Conservative Bible
[24]WorldNetDaily – Now ‘Conservatives’ are Twisting Scripture
[25]Encyclopedia Dramatica – Colbert Trolls Conservapedia Into Oblivion
[26]RationalWiki – RationalWiki:History
[27]RationalWiki – RationalWiki does have a sense of humor
[28]RationalWiki – Category:Pseudoscience
[29]RationalWiki – Political spectrum
[30]Alexa – rationalwiki.org
[31]Alexa – conservapedia.org