Wikipedia v. Old-dusty-book-pedia
Our group compared Wikipedia’s entry for Jainism to the 1999 edition of Encyclopedia Americana’s entry for the same word. The verdict: Wikipedia wins by a knockout in round 1. No contest.
First of all, Wikipedia’s entry is organized in a more useful way. It tells me, up front, some basics about what adherents of this ancient religion believe:
Jainism (pronounced /ˈdʒaɪnɪzəm/)is an ancient Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence for all forms of living beings in this world. Its philosophy and practice relies mainly on self effort in progressing the soul on the spiritual ladder to God consciousness. Any soul which has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called jina (Conqueror or Victor). Jainism is the path to achieve this state.
If I’m researching a religion, first things first, I want to know what it’s all about.
Oldmanpedia begins by telling me Jainism is “an ancient monastic religion of India,” the follows with
It is a heterodox religion in denying the validity of the Vedic (ancient Hindu) scriptures, pantheon, and ritual and the authorityof the Brahman priesthood (667)
Wikipedia wins.
Up-to-dateness is an obvious advantage for Wikipedia. The dead-tree version states that Jainism has 2 million followers. Remember, this was printed 10 years ago. Wikipedia says 4 million people practice in India alone, and it references and links to the Indian government census.
These are just a couple of reasons to chuck the old tome out the window in favor of Wikipedia. I’d write more but the class is moving on to something else and I don’t want to get left behind.
June 18, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Ha… “oldmanpedia.”