When my university discovered the Wikipedia and decided it could not be cited as a source in dissertations because it was not authoritative, I laughed. While I do strongly encourage students to consult reference works of all sorts, and while I like the Wikipedia, I do not allow citation from any encyclopedias or handbooks.
However I have just discovered the Conservapedia. Now I understand why it is so difficult to teach students who have been home schooled or who have attended Christian schools. What is most amusing in the Conservapedia is its entry on relativity, which it confuses with relativism even in the corrected version. These entries complain of people who think truth is relative. HAH!
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
I didn’t think anyone could seriously use an encyclopedia reference in a scholarly paper.
I didn’t either but apparently at my university you can use the Encyclopedia Britannica and such in a dissertation. Not if it is directed by me, of course, but then I do not have many graduate students.
In non-public schools, apparently, the Conservapedia is considered authoritative. It claims that other encyclopedias are anti-intellectual and non-scholarly, but it contains the sloppiest ‘scholarly’ work I have ever seen … ! No wonder we are going to the dogs.
I blame the ascendancy of the consumerist “business model.”
The consumerist model has a lot to answer for — it is the epitomy of pseudo-science.
Hey – can you do me a huge favor and expand slightly on that comment? Then I can quote you to my neighbors, retired Marines and so on and Republicans, but *not* Bushites … and perhaps convince them to reconsider their worship of the Business Model. To be able to explain in layman’s terms *how* it is the epitomy of pseudo-science is my goal.
I hadn’t heard of the Conservapedia until this morning when I was alerted to the ten most popular pages in that online (clearing throat) publication: see http://undeniableliberalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/hmmm-whats-their-stance-on.html
If this is not the definition of pseudo-science, I sincerely do not know what would be.
Hi Melissa! Isn’t it amazing? Freaking out about homosexuality seems to be the major impetus for their existence.