GregLGII

A summary of site policies and guidelines you may find useful

• Please sign your posts on talk pages with four tildes (~~~~, found next to the 1 key), and please do not alter other's comments.
• "Truth" is not the criteria for inclusion, verifiability is.
• We do not publish original thought nor original research. We merely summarize reliable sources without elaboration or interpretation.
• Reliable sources typically include: articles from magazines or newspapers (particularly scholarly journals), or books by recognized authors (basically, books by respected publishers). Online versions of these are usually accepted, provided they're held to the same standards. User generated sources (like Wikipedia) are to be avoided. Self-published sources should be avoided except for information by and about the subject that is not self-serving (for example, citing a company's website to establish something like year of establishment).
• Articles are to be written from a neutral point of view. Wikipedia is not concerned with facts or opinions, it just summarizes reliable sources. This usually means that secular academia is given prominence over any individual sect's doctrines, though those doctrines may be discussed in an appropriate section that clearly labels those beliefs for what they are.

Reformulated:

• "Truth" is not the only criteria for inclusion, verifiability is also required.
• Always cite a source for any new information. When adding this information to articles, use <ref>reference tags like this</ref>, containing the name of the source, the author, page number, publisher or web address (if applicable).
• We do not publish original thought nor original research. We're not a blog, we're not here to promote any ideology.
• A subject is considered notable if it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.
• Reliable sources typically include: articles from magazines or newspapers (particularly scholarly journals), or books by recognized authors (basically, books by respected publishers). Online versions of these are usually accepted, provided they're held to the same standards. User generated sources (like Wikipedia) are to be avoided. Self-published sources should be avoided except for information by and about the subject that is not self-serving (for example, citing a company's website to establish something like year of establishment).
• Articles are to be written from a neutral point of view. Wikipedia is not concerned with facts or opinions, it just summarizes reliable sources. Real scholarship actually does not say what understanding of the world is "true," but only with what there is evidence for. In the case of science, this evidence must ultimately start with physical evidence. In the case of religion, this means only reporting what has been written and not taking any stance on doctrine.
• Material must be proportionate to what is found in the source cited. If a source makes a small claim and presents two larger counter claims, the material it supports should present one claim and two counter claims instead of presenting the one claim as extremely large while excluding or downplaying the counter claims.
• We do not give equal validity to topics which reject and are rejected by mainstream academia. For example, our article on Earth does not pretend it is flat, hollow, and/or the center of the universe.

Also, not a policy or guideline, but something important to understand the above policies and guidelines: Wikipedia operates off of objective information, which is information that multiple persons can examine and agree upon. It does not include subjective information, which only an individual can know from an "inner" or personal experience. Most religious beliefs fall under subjective information. Wikipedia may document objective statements about notable subjective claims (i.e. "Christians believe Jesus is divine"), but it does not pretend that subjective statements are objective, and will expose false statements masquerading as subjective beliefs (cf. Indigo children).

You may also want to read User:Ian.thomson/ChristianityAndNPOV. We at Wikipedia are highbrow (snobby), heavily biased for the academia.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. All we do here is cite, summarize, and paraphrase professionally-published mainstream academic or journalistic sources, without addition, nor commentary. We're not a directory, nor a forum, nor a place for you to "spread the word".

If you are here to promote pseudoscience, extremism, fundamentalism or conspiracy theories, we're not interested in what you have to say.

If you came here to maim, bash and troll: be gone! If you came here to edit constructively and learn to abide by policies and guidelines: you're welcome. Tgeorgescu (talk) 25 November 2020 08:30:58 (UTC)

References

December 2020

Please do not use styles that are unusual, inappropriate or difficult to understand in articles, as you did in United States. There is a Manual of Style, and edits should not deliberately go against it without special reason. Thank you. freshacconci (✉) 13:50, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

But the "P" in "Politics" should capitalitzed, since it is in title of that section. Why undo my correction? GregLGII (talk) 17:37, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

The manual of style states that section headings should be sentence case, not title case. This is the standard across Wikipedia. freshacconci (✉) 20:21, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

Ah, ok. Then my next question is, "why not in title case, and where can I find the answer to that question?". GregLGII (talk) 20:26, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

March 2023

Hello, I'm AgisdeSparte. I wanted to let you know that I reverted one of your recent contributions—specifically this edit to Eastern Orthodox Church—because it did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you have any questions, you can ask for assistance at the Teahouse or the Help desk. Thanks. AgisdeSparte (talk) 14:34, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

@AgisdeSparte Why do you say "it did not appear constructive"? GregLGII (talk) 14:40, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

Good morning,

I said that because you didn't source anywhere that it was the third largest denomination. Don't hesitate to find those sources before adding this kind of text in the intro. (I would also suggest that for changes of this extent you could ask the Wikipedians about their thoughts in the Discussion page of the aforementioned article) AgisdeSparte (talk) 14:43, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

@AgisdeSparte

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_by_number_of_members?wprov=sfla1

At the top of the article.

Eastern Orthodox is 3rd under "Catholic" and "Protestantism". GregLGII (talk) 14:46, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

Protestantism is not a single denomination, but a grouping of several very different denominations. That's already been discussed several times. Vanjagenije (talk) 23:43, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

@Vanjagenije

But the article says it's a denomination.

Your retort applies to all the major denominational groups not just "Protestantism". There are sub denominational divisions in Roman Catholicism, Eastern orthodoxy, Oriental orthodoxy, the Church of the East etc.

So it's legitimate for you to disagree with what article A says, but it's not legitimate for me to disagree with what article B says, and post a minor edit concerning it's place on the list of denomination by number of members? GregLGII (talk) 23:53, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

Which article says it's a denomination? Vanjagenije (talk) 23:58, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

@Vanjagenije https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_by_number_of_members?wprov=sfla1

The list that first meets your eyes at the very top of the page. GregLGII (talk) 00:00, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

No, that article does not say that "Protestantism is a denomination". Try reading more carefully. Vanjagenije (talk) 00:04, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

@Vanjagenije

but the very beginning sentence of the article literally says,

“This is a list of Christian denominations by number of members.”

And then proceeds to identify one of those “denominations” as “Protestants”. GregLGII (talk) 00:06, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

No, actually, quite opposite. The lead section speaks about "Protestant denominations" (that is plural of "denomination" which implies that there are several Protestant denominations). The "Protestantism" section says "Protestantism is the second largest major group of Christians". So, it does not call Protestantism a single denomination. Vanjagenije (talk) 00:10, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

@Vanjagenije But what you just said applies to all these denominational subdivisions of Christianism. GregLGII (talk) 00:12, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

@Vanjagenije 👆🏿 this is also a red herring from my point which this is a response to; when I said, "Eastern Orthodox is 3rd under “Catholic” and ”Protestant”." GregLGII (talk) 00:18, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

No, what I said can in no way be applied to Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Catholic Church is a single church with a single leader. Orthodox Church is a collection of several "autocephalous" (self-governing) churches, but they all share the same theology and are in full communion with each other. On the other hand, Protestantism is a collection of several denominations with very different teachings and do not share the full communion. So, the situation is not "the same" as you claim. On the contrary, it is quite different. Vanjagenije (talk) 00:34, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

@Vanjagenije 🤦🏿‍♂️ GregLGII (talk) 00:37, 13 March 2023 (UTC)