RationalWiki is a satirical

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 wiki

Wiki

A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...

 devoted to analyzing and refuting what its writers perceive as the antiscience

Antiscience

Antiscience is a position that rejects science and the scientific method. People holding antiscientific views are generally skeptical that science is an objective method, as it purports to be, or that it generates universal knowledge. They also contend that scientific reductionism in particular is...

 movement, pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...

, fundamentalism

Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...

, and irrational ideas in general.

The site contains content that critiques and satirizes Conservapedia

Conservapedia

Conservapedia is an English-language wiki project written from a self-described American conservative Christian point of view. The website considers itself to be a supporter of "conservative, family-friendly" content...

 and its administrators, especially founder Andrew Schafly; A Storehouse of Knowledge (another Christian encyclopedia); and various other wikis, including Metapedia

Metapedia

Metapedia is a white nationalist and white supremacist, extreme right-wing and multilingual online encyclopedia. It was officially launched on October 26, 2006 with the Swedish-language edition. The English section was launched on April 28, 2007...

 and CreationWiki. It also contains articles on subjects related to Conservative Christian

Conservative Christianity

Conservative Christianity is a term applied to a number of groups or movements seen as giving priority to traditional Christian beliefs and practices...

 viewpoints, such as creationism

Creationism

Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...

.

History

RationalWiki was founded in 2007 by former Conservapedia editors.

The Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

 recounts what made one of the early members become a part of the site: Peter Lipson, a doctor of internal medicine

Internal medicine

Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...

had his Conservapedia account blocked as a result of him attempting to include evidence in Conservapedia's breast cancer article that went against Conservapedia's statement linking abortion as a major cause of the disease.

As of November 27, 2011, RationalWiki has over 5,500 content pages.