This is a WikiProject, a collaboration area and open group of editors dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of a particular topic, or to organizing some internal Wikipedia process.
Please see the Guide to WikiProjects and the Directory of WikiProjects for more information.
Dedicated to creating and adding to articles related to science and philosophy, while checking the POV currently present in various Wikipedia articles dealing with such topics as psychics, magick, alternative medicine, etc.
The neutral point of view (NPOV) must be preserved where it exists and created where it does not exist.
This WikiProject aims primarily to coordinate the efforts of Wikipedians who wish to promote science and reason in an effort to improve the general quality and range of Wikipedia articles on various topics, while maintaining the NPOV.
The goals of this WikiProject are as follows:
To create new articles relating to science and reason.
To create new Wikipedia articles regarding those topics not yet covered by Wikipedia, but which are covered by The Skeptic's Dictionary.
To place {{Rational Skepticism}} tags on articles related to Rational Skepticism, fraudster tags on articles concerning convicted fraudsters, and add to criticisms sections where criticism is due.
To identify cases of fraud and other unethical/illegal activities undertaken by religious and quasi-religious organizations, as they often go unreported.
To improve and clean up those articles which need help.
To serve as a nexus and discussion area for editors interested in doing such work.
Rational skepticism or Scientific skepticism (British English spelling: scepticism) sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a scientific, or practical, epistemological position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, a scientific skeptic generally focuses on critically examining claims and theories which they believe to be far beyond the mainstream of science.
Scientific skepticism is different from philosophical skepticism, which questions our right to claim knowledge about the nature of the world and how we perceive it. Scientific skepticism utilizes critical thinking and attempts to oppose claims made which lack suitable evidential basis.
If you wish to join this project or see its current members then please see the subpage below. If you want to join then simply add your name to the list of "active members" and don't forget to list your interests and specialities.
Autarch - mostly maths/physics related, but also evolution.
xSAMIx. Have knowledge on paranormal and occult and believe that Wikipedia needs people who know about the subjects yet can remain neutral involved.
SSPecter Since 18 October 2006. Im interested in religion, science, pseudo-science, Information technology, AI.
Havermayer. I have a broad interest in all skeptical issues. I know quite a bit about creationism, and am currently investigating alternative medicine.
Openminded skeptic. Primarily interested in claims of paranormal phenomena, occult myths and ritual, UFOlogy etc. — e. ripley\talk
——Martinphi(Talk Ψ Contribs) I'm a skeptic in the tradition of Truzzi, and interested in precisely stating exactly what is known of the paranormal.
Lipollis - my expertise is in the fields of Archaeology, Antrhopology, Folklore and Linguistics. I've done a fair amount of field work in early American Industrial Archaeology, Iroquoian langues, archaeology, culture and the recent cultural conflicts over gaming. As a rational skeptic, my interests are in providing documented and legitimate academic criticisims where they apply. My most recent efforts have been on the Carlos Castaneda article.LiPollis 16:22, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
Mycroft7 22:31, 23 April 2007 (UTC) interested in researching and adding more skeptical viewpoints and neutral phrasing to paranormal articles
Xinit I have been focusing on general purpose copy editing of a handful of pseudoscientific and related articles here with an aim to improve readability, squash original research and uncited claims. That last is difficult when you're dealing with some subject matter in this area.
John Carter 16:06, 10 July 2007 (UTC) - Primarily directly project-related activities.
Famousdog 14:07 11th July 2007 (UTC) - Vision, psychology, perception. There's a lot of rubbish talked about it!
Scorpion451 00:48, 13 July 2007 (UTC)- Undergraduate in chemical engineering. My specialies are bluntness and a penchant for bulldozing bad articles into legible ones, as well as a talent for finding the flaws in the "evidence" behind pseudoscience. I also strive to defend the right of these theories to be objectively included in wikipedia. Paranormal researches did prove ball lightning and the okapi, after all.
ornis 01:38, 14 July 2007 (UTC) - interests: Religion, Creationism and Quackery.
Marion Delgado Interests: Climate science, history, sociology of science, energy, economics. Specialties: Abstract math, physics, journalism, conspiracy literature, linguistics
User:Piechjo Alternative therapies for disabilities, pseudoscience in behavioral sciences.
Elhector - Strong interest in world religions. Also very interested in controversial topics like intelligent design and scientology. I would describe myself as a skeptic since birth.
Herd of Swine Interests: fringe medicine, pseudoscience, junk science, quackery
JMA1 I'm Belgian, so I mostly contribute to the French wikipédia, but my interest is in the UFO phenomena and especially the Psychosocial Hypothesis. I also try to put some French-related skeptical informations on the English wikipedia (like about COMETA or the GEIPAN for example).
Ronja 06:35, 31 August 2007 (UTC) I am a Bright from Finland and hope it is OK for me to be listed here, even though I most likely will use most the time I can spare to translate material from the articles in this project to the Finnish and Swedish wikipedias.
Kwork I am concerned about New Age irrationality; such as can be seen, for example, in the Alice Bailey article.
•Jim62sch• 10:48, 17 September 2007 (UTC) Any topic where pseudoscience, pseudohistory, religion or mysticism threatens to suvert or replace rational thought or scientific knowledge.
Naturezak (talk) 19:42, 27 November 2007 (UTC) Interests: epistemology and phenomenology; atheism and skepticism; evolutionary biology; cognitive neuroscience; poetics; spiritualism and pseudoscience in literature
LeContexte (talk) 15:41, 28 November 2007 (UTC) general interest in skepticism and rationality, particularly in relation to "free energy" claims
Noleander (talk) 19:26, 7 December 2007 (UTC) Scientist. Interested in rebutting pseudoscience or superstitions, especially when they are used to take advantage of uneducated folks.
User:JamesStewart7 Interests: various medicine, biology, neuroscience and psychology related topics. Done multiple edits on alternative medicine topics.
Angrynight (talk) 10:01, 3 January 2008 (UTC) Interests: Skepticism in general, the skeptical movement, myths about traditions and religious practices, misconceptions about history.
ThracianSlave 15:52, 17 January 2008. Background in Biology, Chemistry, Sociology, Computer Science, Teaching, History. Interested in reviewing homeopathic ingredients, general quackery and other areas skeptics should chime in on.
papageno (talk) 02:38, 23 January 2008 (UTC) Interested in reviewing articles related to health and radio frequencies, mobile telephony and wireless communications.
Salmanazar (talk) 18:41, 3 February 2008 (UTC) Interests: so-called "mysterious disappearances" and UFOlogical nonsense.
Naturstud. BSc Pharmaceutical and Biological Chemistry. Pursuing Naturopathic medicine degree from an EBM POV, which can sometimes be extremely painful. Disliked intensely by the homeopathy set at school, needless to say. Fascinated by the interplay between rational and irrational skepticism that sometimes results as CAM gets more and more serious study. Mission: Seek out and destroy wild generalizations about the 'uselessnes' of 'widely rejected' CAM interventions that 'have no basis in science' and 'have been proven false' that, on closer inspection, have some decent data to support them, or, more bizarely, havn't been scientifically evaluated at all! Secret Mission: Expose the irrational basis of misplaced skepticism on wiki.
User:Cdynas Strong knowledge in Scientology & general interests in intelligent design, alternative medicines & psychics.
Voice-of-All. I'd like to patrol ID/evolution and alternative medicine articles.
cjllw (talk) 03:06, 22 April 2008 (UTC) — countering/identifying pseudoarchaeology and pseudohistory.
Mariordo engineering, economics, transportation economics, traffic engineering, biofuels, history of science, math, physics, astronomy, all-around skeptic and critical thinking.Mariordo (talk) 01:41, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
User:Ciroa Interested in widely recognized cases where skepticism delayed or impeded advances in mainstream science; if all skeptics agree, then it's not skepticism anymore.
chuck0765 - Chuck Brodeur - Interests include general science, critical thinking, and skepicism
User:Slowthy-intelligent design and religious quakery.
Vufors (talk) 08:32, 9 June 2008 (UTC) - Science areas in Physics and Mathematics.
Magnum Serpentine (talk) 21:38, 14 June 2008 (UTC) - Disproving Fundamentalist Reconstructionist. I am a Christian (Non Fundamentalist). Historian with degrees in United States and World Histories . Also have a degree in Psychology. Skeptic but not Skeptical Inquirer Skeptic. I will admit if I am stumped, I don't know or if there is not enough evidence to say yes or no on a subject. Also I will admit if something turns out to be true. Amateur Astronomer since age of 7.
DDStretch(talk) Critical of Psychology and Psychiatry, Alternative and Complementary Medicine in particular, but wide-ranging. I have degrees in psychology and mathematical psychology and though now retired, I continue to research and advocate in areas of critical thinking, argumentation theory, and the research process within the psychological and psychiatric sciences.
Ships at a Distance (talk) - Interested in atheism, biology, and politics, and especially interested in writing criticism sections.
Fiziker - I am an undergraduate physicist. My efforts with regards to this project are focused for now on improving Bigfoot.
Athol Mullen (talk) - Mechanical engineer - interests include debunking perpetual motion devices (eg water-fuelled car). Global warming skeptic.
Jack-A-Roe (talk) Skepticism as neither belief nor dis-belief; the state of non-belief. Proof is based in evidence; assumptions do not satisfy. Not having an answer is a perfectly fine state for a question.
Ole Eivind - Chemistry student interested in science and scepticism in general. President of The Students' Skeptics Society at NTNU.
Reason: I have other things that I need to be focusing on, so I won't be able to participate in this project as much as I'd like. I'll still be watching this page to keep up with current events. If you feel the need to respond, please do it on my talk page. 06:51, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Same reason here. Feureau 10:46, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
Bubba73talk - Joined 1/31/06. I was active on pseudoscience articles, but I had to cut down on my Wikipedia hours, so I'm mostly inactive now. (Well I'm not as inactive as I claim to be, or wish to be.) Bubba73(talk), 05:05, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Askolnick: alternative medicine, quackery, transcendental mediation, creationism/Intelligent design, science & medical journalism, and other areas of pseudoscience --He blanked his user page and left with the comment "Wikipedia is really not worth the enormous effort to write and edit articles and protect them from the myriad of Vandal tribes seeking to plunder the popularity of this source. Fighting against the dishonest changes of anonymous, often Single Purpose Account editors, is just not worth it." Let's hope it's just a temporary bout of wikistress, but perhaps we can contact him and encourage him to come back. Edhubbard 11:29, 24 September 2006 (UTC)
Jamie Guinn 07:38, 27 February 2007 (UTC) Will check in time to time and help when I can.
Chemist3456 - anything to keep those idiots who refuse science quiet.
7Kim ... I'm time-stressed at the moment, so I can't be as active as I'd like, but I feel it's important to support this project. I am deeply concerned about the use of distortion of science and the use of sloppy thinking and irrationalism in politics, particularly the social politics of gender and sexuality.
User:Medical Intuitive - Bruce Dickson - Working medical intuitive with a science bent and involvement with psychic, healing, dowsing, spiritual field since the 1950s.
User:Midgley Medicine. Busy though. Good project, even if I can't add much to it.
purpose: Project banner template; identifies in-scope articles, alerts other editors to this WikiProject. Also used for recording article assessments per the rating scheme via its parameters, there are other flags as well.
placement: On the talk page of relevant articles, at the top.
purpose: identifies project participants placement: somewhere in your user space - alternatively, the banner {{Rational Skepticism-Member}} could go on your user page as well.
