Conservapedia talk:Front Page
Starting with the definition of what an encyclopedia is, Dictionary.com defines it as "a book or set of books containing articles on various topics, usually in alphabetical arrangement, covering all branches of knowledge or, less commonly, all aspects of one subject."
We've expanded on that definition with the advent of the internet and now we have wiki's that let users create articles on virtually anything that can be imagined. I think that wikipedia is more like the first part of the definition, covering all branches of knowledge. Now, nowhere does it say that an encyclopedia contains CORRECT information, just articles on various topics. There are many articles in wikipedia that one can agree with and many that one would disagree with and that's for the individual to decide.
Conservapedia is of a different brand. It combines the two parts of the definition because it addresses all branches of knowledge but it does so from a conservative view point which makes it similar to covering aspects of one subject "conservatism". Just like other wiki's, articles can be created, edited, altered or rewritten by either the users or the operators of the site. It's an ever-changing body of knowledge that helps us understand different topics, and Conservapedia does so from the viewpoint of conservatives instead of a generalized or liberal view. This helps conservatives, who share a common mindset to share the information they have on many different topics in ways that increase knowledge and understanding from this viewpoint.
Since no encyclopedia can claim that it has absolute athority, since it is a collection of articles written by people based on the knowledge they have, many different encyclopedias can be compared resulting in very different ideas depending on what viewpoint it is written in. It is advantageous for people of a particular mindset to utilize an encyclopedia that shares the same mindset so they may gain knowledge of topics in an easier way or a more cognitively acceptable way for them. ---John