Don’t plagiarise from the poor

Introducing Secular thought, an ancient journal of the Canadian heathen.

This blog is generally a tipsy rant, but I also periodically research, write, rewrite, and edit for serious people who can afford not to. A commment from a slightly unsatisfied customer this morning: “Why have you included him in the bibliography? No one’s heard of him.” “No, but the whole fucking thing’s based on his work.” Better, perhaps, might have been Proverbs: “Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: / For the Reviewer will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.”

Off-piste, but also attractive: “Rob not the poor, because he is poor; but rob them that have the stuff, then endow a cot in a hospital and it shall be well with thy soul.” It’s from a 1905 number of Secular thought. A monthly journal of rational criticism in politics, science and religion, a splendidly curious poti-poti of tales, many of them true, and advice, much of it valid. Neo-Christian creeds like Marxism broke down under their internal contradictions before large numbers of people got round to reading and refuting them, but it’s a shame we modern atheists don’t know the Scripture as well as these Toronto folks.

Similar posts

Back soon


Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *