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This article requires rewriting as it is entirely promotional ( WP:PUFF) and lacking in secondary citations that actually back up the article. While James McDonald may or may not be notable (policies like Wikipedia:Notability_(academics), Wikipedia:Notability (people) should be consulted, and adequate sources should be searched for), the article bears all the signs of puffing up that notability. McDonald links to this Wikipedia article on his personal homepage.
I will say that his writings are prolific and widely-disseminated. If you have spent enough time on the internet, you have a decent chance of having stumbled across one his websites, like www.cathar.info, even if you didn't know what a Cathar was. On Google Scholar, though, it doesn't look like his works on religious topics have received many citations. Google Scholar profile (Independent Researcher)
cathar.info
is on the Wikimedia-wide spam blacklist
[1] which has been discussed
[2] including him commenting objecting to many of his domains being blocked
[3]. That was in 2007. There's history involving now-banned user(s) posting "hundreds" of McDonald's links to Wikipedia, and other disputes, some involving content that McDonald feels strongly about (such as the persecution of Christians).
I'm going to state all the following points for future reference, and as justification for rewriting/deletion/etc:
James McDonald is a British polymath: mathematician, etymologist, historian, theologian and non-fiction writer.[1][2][3]
His work is characterised by combining serious scholarship with an entertaining style.[4][5]The two citations are to 1985 reviews of Wordly Wise. (Similarly in the infobox:
Scholarly yet entertaining writing.) This is editorializing.
Something of a polymath, he has also written on subjects as diverse as computer simulation, mathematical problems, philosophy, etymology and comparative philology.No footnotes. An attempt to sound impressive.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1990.A "fellowship" is open to anyone who has been a "member" for 5 years (which only requires payment of fees).
He is a life member of Humanists UK.A membership open to anyone who pays £850.
His biography in the 5th edition of his book Voltaire on the Cathars notes that he is one of a small but growing number of atheist theologians.This is a biography (perhaps written by him) in his own book, which he self-published. Also, "atheist theologian" would be commonly understood to be self-contradictory, so without another source, this is at most a self-claim.
This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page. |
![]() | This article is rated Stub-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||
|
This article requires rewriting as it is entirely promotional ( WP:PUFF) and lacking in secondary citations that actually back up the article. While James McDonald may or may not be notable (policies like Wikipedia:Notability_(academics), Wikipedia:Notability (people) should be consulted, and adequate sources should be searched for), the article bears all the signs of puffing up that notability. McDonald links to this Wikipedia article on his personal homepage.
I will say that his writings are prolific and widely-disseminated. If you have spent enough time on the internet, you have a decent chance of having stumbled across one his websites, like www.cathar.info, even if you didn't know what a Cathar was. On Google Scholar, though, it doesn't look like his works on religious topics have received many citations. Google Scholar profile (Independent Researcher)
cathar.info
is on the Wikimedia-wide spam blacklist
[1] which has been discussed
[2] including him commenting objecting to many of his domains being blocked
[3]. That was in 2007. There's history involving now-banned user(s) posting "hundreds" of McDonald's links to Wikipedia, and other disputes, some involving content that McDonald feels strongly about (such as the persecution of Christians).
I'm going to state all the following points for future reference, and as justification for rewriting/deletion/etc:
James McDonald is a British polymath: mathematician, etymologist, historian, theologian and non-fiction writer.[1][2][3]
His work is characterised by combining serious scholarship with an entertaining style.[4][5]The two citations are to 1985 reviews of Wordly Wise. (Similarly in the infobox:
Scholarly yet entertaining writing.) This is editorializing.
Something of a polymath, he has also written on subjects as diverse as computer simulation, mathematical problems, philosophy, etymology and comparative philology.No footnotes. An attempt to sound impressive.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1990.A "fellowship" is open to anyone who has been a "member" for 5 years (which only requires payment of fees).
He is a life member of Humanists UK.A membership open to anyone who pays £850.
His biography in the 5th edition of his book Voltaire on the Cathars notes that he is one of a small but growing number of atheist theologians.This is a biography (perhaps written by him) in his own book, which he self-published. Also, "atheist theologian" would be commonly understood to be self-contradictory, so without another source, this is at most a self-claim.