Answering questions with outside sources

Question

Some of my answers come quickly after a question pops up, because I can Google the answer quickly and there are numerous sources out there having addressed the question.

Sometimes I feel bad getting rep from something that is essentially an edited copy-paste (I do always cite the site I recite from). Sure, I cleaned up whatever I've found on-line, but it's not really my words.

I receive personal benefit from answering these questions, as they expand my knowledge of the Bible, and I feel that usually the answers are good answers to the questions, but again, I'm pulling off someone else's words. What should I do in these cases? Sometimes another answer pops up about the same time, saying a different thing, citing a different site or clearly sourced from memory. Should I make these answers Community Wiki?

Answer 1

That great theologian, Tom Lehrer, perhaps put it best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL4vWJbwmqM

I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.

In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics: Plagiarize!

Plagiarize, Let no one else's work evade your eyes, Remember why the good Lord made your eyes, So don't shade your eyes, But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize - Only be sure always to call it please 'research'.

Now, obviously plagarism isn't what we want, but the joke makes the point - good research may often look like plagarism. Indeed "novelty" in theology is a bad word. Ideally, you don't say anything "new."

I believe it was Charles Spurgeon who said, "Hopefully I said nothing new - I only arranged the words differently."

Obviously, you should "arrange" from multiple sources, but your rephrasing of others' research is what good theology is often about - putting together old ideas in a clear, compelling, and cohesive manner that addresses the concern of the questioner.

It works!