By SWIFT - JAMES RANDI EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
Added: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:33:06 UTC

The single most powerful skeptical tool on the Internet today is Wikipedia. Only ten years old, this living, breathing encyclopedia has already changed the epistemology in every language.

On my blog Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia I urge the skeptical community to embrace Wikipedia as our most relevant tool, enabling us to shape the public into better critical thinkers. We already know that 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 their minds.

Guerrilla Skepticism is the act of inserting well written, carefully cited skeptical references into Wikipedia pages where they are needed, while still following the guidelines and rules of everyone’s online encyclopedia. This grassroots method allows skeptics working at home to contribute to the skeptical movement without personally confronting people. Tim Farley and Daniel Loxton have been advocating editing Wikipedia with skeptical content for a couple of years; I began my blog in June, 2011 (before presenting this topic at TAM9) as a resource for beginners to learn “how-to” as well as “what-to-do” to get started.

I'm here today to plead my case, and ask for help.
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TAGGED: CRITICAL THINKING, TECHNOLOGY