{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-11:how-to-edit-a-liberal-paper",
  "slug": "how-to-edit-a-liberal-paper",
  "title": "How to Edit a Liberal Paper",
  "subtitle": "Essay.",
  "excerpt": "Advice to the editors of freethought papers on how to run one worth reading — the responsibilities, the temptations, and the reader's time.",
  "year": 1884,
  "volume": 11,
  "category": "Essay",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/how-to-edit-a-liberal-paper/",
  "wordCount": 666,
  "body": "A LIBERAL paper should be edited by a Liberal man.\n\nAnd by the word Liberal I mean, not only free, not only one who thinks\nfor himself, not only one who has escaped from the prisons of customs\nand creed, but one who is candid, intelligent and kind.\n\nThis Liberal editor should not forever play upon one string, no matter\nhow wonderful the music. He should not have his attention forever fixed\nupon one question—that is to say, he should not look through a reversed\ntelescope and narrow his horizon to that degree that he sees only one\nthing.\n\nTo know that the Bible is the literature of a barbarous people, to know\nthat it is uninspired, to be certain that the supernatural does not and\ncannot exist—all this is but the beginning of wisdom. This only lays\nthe foundation for unprejudiced observation. To kill weeds, to fell\nforests, to drive away or exterminate wild beasts—this is preparatory\nto doing something of greater value. Of course the weeds must be killed,\nthe forests must be felled, and the beasts must be destroyed before the\nbuilding of homes and the cultivation of fields.\n\nA Liberal paper should not discuss theological questions alone.\nIntelligent people everywhere have given up most of the old\nsuperstitions. They have pretty well made up their minds what is false,\nand they want to know some others.\n\nThat is to say, liberal toward everything that is true. For this reason,\na Liberal paper should keep abreast of the discoveries of the human\nmind. No science should be neglected; no fact should be overlooked.\nInventions should be described and understood. And not only this, but\nthe beautiful in thought, in form and color, should be preserved. The\npaper should be filled with things calculated to interest thoughtful,\nintelligent and serious people. There should be a column for children as\nwell as for men.\n\nAbove all, it should be perfectly kind and candid. In discussion there\nis no place for hatred, no opportunity for slander. A personality\nis always out of place. An angry man can neither reason himself, nor\nperceive the reason of what another says. The orthodox world has always\ndealt in personalities. Every minister can answer the argument of an\nopponent by attacking the character of the opponent. This example should\nnever be followed by a Liberal man. Nobody can be bad enough to prove\nthat the Bible is uninspired, and nobody can be good enough to prove\nthat it is the word of God. These facts have no relation. They neither\nstand nor fall together.\n\nNothing should be asserted that is not known. Nothing should be denied,\nthe falsity of which has not been, or cannot be, demonstrated. Opinions\nare simply given for what they are worth. They are guesses, and one\nguesser should give to another guesser all the right of guessing that he\nclaims for himself. Upon the great questions of origin, of destiny, of\nimmortality, of punishment and reward in other worlds, every honest man\nmust say, \"I do not know.\" Upon these questions, this is the creed of\nintelligence. Nothing is harder to bear than the egotism of ignorance\nand the arrogance of superstition. The man who has some knowledge of\nthe difficulties surrounding these subjects, who knows something of the\nlimitations of the human mind, must, of necessity, be mentally modest.\nAnd this condition of mental modesty is the only one consistent with\nindividual progress.\n\nAbove all, and over all, a Liberal paper should teach the absolute\nfreedom of the mind, the utter independence of the individual, the\nperfect liberty of speech. We should remember that the world is as it\nmust be; that the present is the necessary offspring of the past; that\nthe future must be what the present makes it, and that the real work of\nthe reformer, of the philanthropist, is to change the conditions of the\npresent, to the end that the future may be better.\n\nSecular Thought, Toronto, January 8,1887.\n"
}