User:Sid/Popularity of Atheism

I did a simple Google search for Conservapedia Atheism and checked the results. It's a fairly good method of determining who points to it. There are issues with this method (Google results may vary from region to region, and don't even get me started on the personalized search history - and before you ask: I'm in Germany, use the US Google and don't have a Google account), but it's an okay indicator of the overall mood, and it's basically the same method CP uses to brag. Thus, my starting point has been this page. Order of sections is based on the Google rank - first section here had the highest rank.

Results[edit]

Conservapedia[edit]

Okay, duh. Google gives two CP pages as results: cp:Atheism and cp:Conservapedia:Atheism vs. Deism, a debate from April 2007.

A Bit Tasty[edit]

This February 27, 2007 entry shows how the Atheism article actually improved over the course of a few days. Impossible? No. February 2007 was before Conservative touched the article. It's interesting to compare the before/after image in that post with the current article.

Google Groups[edit]

From "The conservapedia - Atheism":

It's pretty much a given that the conservapedia is a great Internet joke, even if that's unintentional. Phyllis Schlafley's Eagle Forum should have exercised some editorial control to make sure that complete morons and trolls don't screw up entries.

What's really ironic is that the Wiktiality website -- a site inspired by Comedy Central's Colbert Report, seems to have much better written articles on the same subjects as the conservapedia.[...]

Evolution Fairytale Forum[edit]

This forum thread was started by "Peter Moore":

I created most the Conservapedia atheism article located here: http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism

Any feedback would be appreciated.

...wait, what? Oh, hi, Conservative! :D Good to see you happily link-spamming!

RationalWiki[edit]

About fricken time! Our result is... User talk:Newton, a.k.a. ~~Peter Moore~~ Conservative! :D

Here's the post Google picked up and shows in the summary:

Regarding Conservapedia's atheism article: In due time, Conservapedia user "Robert Turkel" may return. It was far from an empty promise. However, in the meantime, I have a message for atheists. Before the Ides of March appear, there will be an interesting development in relation to Conservapedia's atheism article. In addition, it is probable that an organization well known for contending against atheism/materialism will be linking to Conservapedia.Newton 18:36, 13 February 2008 (EST)

Cosmic Variance[edit]

This post is quasi-linked to the "A Bit Tasty" one (ABT found Conservapedia via CV during the blog rush). And in case you're hoping against all hope that this is praise:

Everyone is having their fun with Conservapedia, a rightward-tilting alternative to Wikipedia that aims to ensure that future generations of conservatives grow up really dumb.[...]

It links to a pre-Conservative-era version of the Atheism article, but ironically enough, the current version has pretty much the same base message.

PTET (Blogspot)[edit]

In the post "Conservapedia: Because every time you use Wikipedia, God kills a puppy..." (January 2008, even! Look, people still stumble over CP!), PTET talks... not about Conservapedia's Atheism article, but rather about Creationists on the Expelled IMDB Message Board.

Atheist Geek News[edit]

This post takes a look at cp:Militant Atheism and comes to the conclusion:

Yes, once again, atheism gets the blame for the evils of communism instead of the heads of state running those regimes. Apparently communists hate religion and religious people because they're atheists ... and that's all there is to it.

NoGodBlog (American Atheists)[edit]

The comment section of this post were derailed to the degree that somebody threw in the CP Atheism article, apparently for shits and giggles.

Total Drek (Blogspot)[edit]

The post "A Conservapedia Two-fer." doesn't mention CP's Atheism article, but it does touch CP and Atheism through CP's Main Page. Worth a read since it nicely shows just how trustworthy CP's main page can be.

Conclusion[edit]

Okay, so we got one Google page of results (plus one result since the first one was CP itself). The verdict: Not good. The only result that actually discusses and praises the current version of the Atheism article, and that was in a thread started by Conservative on the "Evolution Fairytale" (Gosh, what makes you think that this site may have an anti-evolution bias?) forum.