I recently proposed that we make explicit Wikipedia's NPOV
policy on historical context. It is clear that the vast
majority of our contributors, in all areas of religion,
history and sociology, understand NPOV to mean that we
discus the historical development of an issue. We don't
just look at things the way there are today, and assume
that this is how they always have been.
As such. I am working on wording for this idea. The
following comes from [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Judaism]].
Wikipedia [[NPOV]] policy means that we attempt to treat
issues in light of their historical development. We do not
merely describe the way that Judaism's beliefs and
practices exist now. We certainly do describe these, but we
also describe their historical origins as known from the
best evidence.
Wikipedia articles on history and religion draw from a
religion's sacred texts, in this case including the Torah,
Tanakh, Tosefta, Mishnah, the two Talmuds, the [[midrash]]
literature and the [[responsa]] literature. But Wikipedia
articles on history and religion also draw from modern
archaeological, historical and scientific sources
Wikipedia articles describe changing social, religious and
political conditions, and how Judaism's beliefs and
practices may have developed over time.
Many Orthodox Jews will strenuously object to a critical
historical treatments, claiming that this discriminates
against their religious beliefs. They would prefer that the
articles describe their faith as they see it, which is from
an ahistorical perspective (e.g. the way things are is the
way things have always been; any differences are from
heretical sects that don't represent the real religion.)
This point of view can also be mentioned; there is no
necessary contradiction. NPOV policy means that we say that
Group A says one thing for somesuch reasons, while group B
says another thing for other reasons.
==
Obviously, it would be easy to adapt this sort of form for
us in other religion WikiProjects.
The problem is that there are literally hundreds of
statements on NPOV and historical context within Wikipedia
Talk pages, but I can't find one central statement. Since
agreement usually exists in practice, I propose that we add
a new section to the NPOV article that makes our shared
understanding of this issue explicit.
The text that I propose above is, of course, tentative, and
subject to revision, like all Wikipedia text. I look
forward to the suggestions of others.
Robert (RK)
=====
"No one is poor except he who lacks knowledge....A person who has knowledge has
everything. A person who lacks knowledge, what has he? Once a person acquires knowledge,
what does he lack? [Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim, 41a]
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