So much at stake for today’s heretics

Today’s heretics are not burned at the stake but marginalised, suppressed or ridiculed — even ostracised by their scientific, medical or academic communities: a metaphorical burning, if not of books then of reputations, no matter how impressive and relevant their credentials and status might be in their own fields of endeavour.

Heresy has moved from a religious to a secular context and today can be defined as a belief or opinion profoundly in conflict with what is generally accepted, whether that general acceptance is valid or not, rather than something contrary to prevailing religious doctrine.

The term is well known in reference to Christianity, Judaism and Islam where stating ideas regarded as heretical has been, and still is in some places, met with punishments ranging from excommunication to execution.

The Inquisition, also referred to as the Holy Inquisition in the history of the Catholic Church, was created to deal with heresy using torture and violence, to gain ‘confessions’, and the burning of books to prevent the spread of unacceptable ideas. The Inquisition began in the 13th century to deter religious dissent, especially among the Cathars and the Waldensians, who were persecuted ruthlessly. And yet then, as now, there was profundity, insight and truth to be discovered in so-called heretical beliefs.