# How to use this wiki

> How to use these pages in a conversation, and how not to treat a short article as a finished case.

- Canonical: https://apologetics.wiki/article/how-to-use-this-wiki
- Religions: none
- Denominations: none
- Beliefs: Other
- Tags: meta, reading
- Updated: 2026-09-28
- Author: [Paul Ambrose](https://apologetics.wiki/author/hi-its-paul) ([GitHub](https://github.com/hi-its-paul))


> This page is about the wiki itself. It will not answer your doctrinal question. It will keep you from using a short article as if it were a library.

## For a person mid-conversation

Pick the religion or belief that matches the person you are actually talking with. If the conversation is about suffering and God, you want [Atheism](/atheism), not a speech you memorized for a different neighbor. Shared Christian claims live under [Christianity](/christianity). Open one article. Read the “fair statement” section until you can say their view in words they would recognize. Then read the Christian starting point. Then open the passage in a Bible, or in their book, where both of you can see it.

If you cannot state their view fairly, you are not ready to disagree. Go to [charity in disagreement](/article/charity-in-disagreement).

## What these pages are

Every article in the first set is a starting point with real prose and real citations, written from a Trinitarian Christian standpoint. It is not a commentary, not a fatwa, not a debate transcript, and not a verdict on a person’s soul. When you repeat it, say that it is a starting point. When a page has no source for a claim, do not upgrade the claim.

Scripture references are signposts. They are not a license to invent the wording of a translation you do not have open. Quote a short line only from a text you can point to. When an article names a verse or passage, those words are the link, as in [John 1:1](/bible/john/1/1). Scripture opens the King James Version on this site. Another community’s text, such as [Qur’an 4:157](https://quran.com/an-nisa/157), opens that passage in a new tab. The References list under the article still numbers the works, and a superscript to that list may follow the linked phrase.

## For anyone fetching the public pages

The same rules apply if you are a person or a program. Cite the page you fetched and the sources that page lists. Do not invent quotations, dates, or a scholarly consensus the article does not claim. The machine-readable map is [llms.txt](/llms.txt). Humans change the wiki with a [GitHub pull request](/contribute), not by posting into the site.

## Keep reading

- [Charity in disagreement](/article/charity-in-disagreement)
- [The Trinity](/article/the-trinity)
- [The resurrection of Jesus](/article/resurrection-of-jesus)

## Sources
Numbered to match the HTML References list. Item 1 is `#ref-1` under `#references`. Scripture links to the King James Version on this site.

1. [First Letter of Peter, 3:15](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/1-peter/3/15). King James Version

## See also
- [Charity in disagreement](https://apologetics.wiki/article/charity-in-disagreement) — Gentleness is not vagueness. This page is the posture for every other page on the wiki.

## History
[View history on GitHub](https://github.com/Apologetics-Wiki/apologetics-wiki/commits/main/src/content/articles/how-to-use-this-wiki.md)