Sunday, September 23, 2012

How I became an Atheist and how that concerns Wikipedia

At a lecture for Reason 4 Reason, San Francisco Skeptic group on 9/22/2012.  I shared how I  found atheism.  The family consequences and my reasoning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQs4IxX_-kQ

How I link this up to the reason why we need to edit Wikipedia.

Shouting and belittling believers does nothing but force them to circle the cognitive dissonance wagons and shut down. Allowing them to do their own research and think things through independently, without pressure, is the only way to potentially change minds. 

When they are ready to start thinking about their beliefs they first go to their friends/family.  Then to some kind of research (usually the Internet).  They probably will find themselves on Wikipedia and we better be waiting for them, with well researched, well linked articles.  And great citations for them to follow to the source.


We may never know that Wikipedia page changed their mind, there is no comment feature (thankfully), and they are unlikely to leave a message for an editor any more than they would have written to the encyclopedia editor years ago.

Besides, Wikipedia still has a stigma associated with it, people are unlikely to state that they changed their mind after reading Wikipedia. 

Video recording by Paulina Mejia.

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