The Conservapedia on Evolution

[kevin]

Not sure if anyone has seen this but apparently the Conservapedia wants to be the Fox News of wikipedias. The entry on Evolution is fairly entertaining, it claims abiogensis as part of the theory of evolution and that it violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Evolution

Heh, their creationism article states that the Dover trial had "many provable errors" and was cut and pasted from the ACLU.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Creationism

Of course they don't list the errors, or even the cut/paste sections.

[Taffer]

Do I even want to know?

I just know it's going to give me a headache.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Taffer

Do I even want to know?

I just know it's going to give me a headache.

Yeah, I don't think I can take much more wandering around the site. Do not read the article on Africa! I think a 3rd grader wrote it.

From their World History Lecture One
http://www.conservapedia.com/World_History_Lecture_One

Quote:

We can also extrapolate backwards from modern populations to estimate that only about 300 million people existed in the world at the time of Christ, and extrapolating backwards further yields only one family in the year 3300 B.C

and

Quote:

History books speculate at length about “prehistory”, which predates writing. But there is no reliable evidence to support this speculation, and not worth spending time on. There is no reason to think that man existed for thousands of years without ever expressing himself in written form.

[Taffer]

And now I shall sleep.


-_-

[Merko]

Originally Posted by kevin

Do not read the article on Africa! I think a 3rd grader wrote it.

I think you're unfair to third graders. Surely they would not start an article with:
"The continent south of Europe and south-east[citation needed] of Asia."
Gotta love the way someone inserted that "citation needed" though.

[Pipirr]

From the site:

Quote:

Tired of the LIBERAL BIAS every time you search on Google and a Wikipedia page appears? Now it's time for the Conservatives to get our voice out on the internet!

Conservapedia began in November 2006, as the class project for a World History class of 58 advanced homeschooled and college-bound students meeting in New Jersey.

Conservapedia has since grown enormously, including contributors nationwide. Conservapedia already has over one-half the number of entries as the Oxford Dictionary of World History. Conservapedia is rapidly becoming one of the largest and most reliable online educational resources of its kind.

I for one welcome our new home-schooled history student overlords.

[kevin]

Not science but the George Washington article says he was unanimously elected president of the USA. He didn't even get all the electoral votes in the first election. I believe he was unanimously elected president of the constitutional convention. That's a whole different thing.

That violates their "first commandment of conservapedia".

Quote:

Everything you post must be true and verifiable

http://www.conservapedia.com/The_Conservapedia_Commandments

[Pipirr]

Well, Kevin, perhaps you could explain how Evil-ution resulted in the tree octopus.

Unequivocal evidence of a designer.



I'm learning a LOT from this site.

[Schneibster]

"Conservapaedie?" Conservapedophilia? Errrmmmm, hmmph.

What, the truth is negotiable? The truth should perhaps be fair and balanced? That's what they've been trying to convince everyone of for the last ten years. It's a mess now, and everyone can see it. I suspect this particular one has a very short half-life- which implies that it's highly radioactive.

I'm a proud part of the reality-based community. I beg you consider the alternative.

[Ladewig]

I just found this site and had to resurrect this thread to quote this esay on evolution.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Essay:M...y_of_Evolution

Finacial reasons for the conspiracy of evolution:

Quote:

While judicial interpretations of the Establishment Clause prohibit any funding of religious arguments, positions or beliefs, the Theory of Evolution enjoys millions of dollars in annual funding by government.

This means that millions of persons, from university professors to graduate students to government researchers to public school teachers, receive paychecks funded in whole or in part by continued support for the Theory of Evolution. If Congress or the President embraced a view that the theory were false, and cut off that funding, then the paychecks of these thousands of persons would decrease or disappear entirely.

In addition, non-profits groups such as the ACLU rely on private donors to defend and promote the Theory of Evolution. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is another non-profit that expends, and presumably raises, substantial monies by promoting the teaching of the Theory of Evolution. The salaries of individuals such organizations could decline if the theory were declared to be false. In litigation over Intelligent Design in Dover, Pennsylvania, the court ordered a payment of over $2 million to the lawyers who defended the Theory of Evolution, and payments under such order contribute directly to the salaries of attorneys and staff workers at such firms.

Many graduate students in anthropology and related fields need topics and funding for doctoral work, and the Theory of Evolution fills that need. If the theory were recognized to be false, then these graduate students would be left without work and jobs.

The financial incentives may exceed $1 billion annually, and will cause a greater support for the theory, particularly among academics and government workers benefiting from the money, than would exist in the absence of these incentives.

That is so sad.

[fls]

Originally Posted by Ladewig

I just found this site and had to resurrect this thread to quote this esay on evolution.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Essay:M...y_of_Evolution

Finacial reasons for the conspiracy of evolution:


That is so sad.

Hey! That's not fair. I've been defending Evolution for free!!

Linda

[Achán hiNidráne]

Huh? I thought those who believed in evil-ution were "godless commies" and wouldn't want filthy capitalist profit?

[Questioninggeller]

Anyone look up Kent Hovind's school, Patriot Bible University? Thanks for the laugh.

You can compare that article to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Bible_University

[strathmeyer]

I love it when people talk like nobody's able to tell if Patriot Bible University is really a diploma mill. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd go buy a Doctorate.

[Corsair 115]

Originally Posted by Schneibster

What, the truth is negotiable?

Apparently yes, it sadly seems.

[quixotecoyote]

This may be a derail, but Patriot University seems to have done a bit of a revision. It now takes roughly the same # of courses to get a degree from there as from a real university, although the prices are still lower.

[Zep]

Yes, but each course is a single-sided form with 5 multi-guess questions, each of which look like this:

Q3. Do you want to go to heaven?

A. Not really.
B. I'll consider it if you define heaven for me.
C. ====> Hell yeah, praise you Jeeebus! <=====
D. What was the question again?
E. None of the above.
F. All of the above.

[Ladewig]

Originally Posted by quixotecoyote

This may be a derail, but Patriot University seems to have done a bit of a revision. It now takes roughly the same # of courses to get a degree from there as from a real university, although the prices are still lower.

Do you have a citation for that?

I suppose that the issue will depend on the definition of a course. Patriot's not being an accredited school allows them to define "course" any way they want.

[ponderingturtle]

Originally Posted by kevin

Not science but the George Washington article says he was unanimously elected president of the USA. He didn't even get all the electoral votes in the first election. I believe he was unanimously elected president of the constitutional convention. That's a whole different thing.

That violates their "first commandment of conservapedia".


http://www.conservapedia.com/The_Conservapedia_Commandments

That all depends on how you define true and verifiable.

They are going for the real truth not the one corrupted by reality and its liberal bias. Think of them in a more gnostic light.

[ponderingturtle]

Originally Posted by Ladewig

I just found this site and had to resurrect this thread to quote this esay on evolution.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Essay:M...y_of_Evolution

Finacial reasons for the conspiracy of evolution:


That is so sad.

I just wonder why they don't continue it to the religious germ theory of disease. It runs counter to proper religious ideas of all disease being the work of demons or punishment from god, so it is a religion, and so the FDA is a religious institution funded by the government.

[ponderingturtle]

Originally Posted by strathmeyer

I love it when people talk like nobody's able to tell if Patriot Bible University is really a diploma mill. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd go buy a Doctorate.

No you can do better. You can buy accreditation from the same source as it does and see if you can award Phd.'s in atheism.

[quixotecoyote]

Originally Posted by Ladewig

Do you have a citation for that?

I suppose that the issue will depend on the definition of a course. Patriot's not being an accredited school allows them to define "course" any way they want.

True enough, but there's no way to tell without actually taking it. I just looked at their website and the amount of coursework advertised is equal to the coursework advertised for my Missouri State Univeristy MA in Communications. Now Patriot is unaccredited, which is a huge mark against it, but I've seen nothing to show it's easy. One might have to do a lot of hard work bible-thumping before getting the degree. I know it said the final requirement was a 150 page dissertation.

[thaiboxerken]

Someone, please, tell me that conservapedia is just a parody site. Please do it without fabrication, please!!

[thaiboxerken]

I find it interesting that conservapedia has a daily bible verse in the main page. I'm not suprised by it though.

[ChristineR]

I was curious enough to poke around. To graduate from Patriot with a B.A. you need 64 courses or 128 credits. The course guide suggest that you can finish a typical course in 3 weeks if you study for 4.5 hours a week. They also suggest that some students can finish three courses a month.

To graduate from a typical four year college you need 128 credits spread over 8 semesters. Using 16 week semesters and the rule of thumb that one credit represents one class hour and three study hours each week, two college credits equates to 96 hours of study, as opposed to less than 15 hours at Patriot University. There doesn't appear to be any teacher interaction, just a workbook and a test.

Reference:
http://www.patriotuniversity.org/upl...udentGuide.pdf

[joesixpack]

Originally Posted by Pipirr

Well, Kevin, perhaps you could explain how Evil-ution resulted in the tree octopus.

Unequivocal evidence of a designer.



I'm learning a LOT from this site.

Sadly, the tree octopus is gone. Extinct, I suppose. Did the Lord call them all home?

[Mosquito]

Originally Posted by Merko

I think you're unfair to third graders. Surely they would not start an article with:
"The continent south of Europe and south-east[citation needed] of Asia."
Gotta love the way someone inserted that "citation needed" though.

I think "citation needed" would be a very natural request for that spesific piece of information, don't you?


Mosquito - thinking that geography is a natural no-pass subject for Evilution-deniers