A heretic is best described as a person whose opinion differs from what are considered generally
accepted beliefs or doctrines. Some might call them, non-conformists. In my estimation it has been the
heretic throughout history who has been the catalyst for meaningful change as well as breaking
humanity out of ruts they have become trapped in. A few weeks ago, in my blog post entitled “I’m Right, You’re Wrong” I cited a few people who clearly qualify as heretics; Giordano Bruno and Dr. Martin
Luther King. Both of these men challenged the status quo and changed the world as a result.
There of course have been many others. To name just a few: Jesus of Nazareth, Galileo, Joan of Arc,
Pietro D’Abano, Meister Eckhart, William of Ockham, Michael Servetus, Hypatia, Roger Bacon, Tommaso
Campanella, Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, Ignaz Semmelweis, Charles Darwin, Alfred Wegener, Nicolaus, Copernicus, Edward Wrightman, Albert Einstein, Timothy Leary and William Coley.
The common thread running through the lives of most heretics is that they offered to humanity some
world-changing idea that was originally aggressively rejected and attacked only to be later recognized as true and embraced. This of course circles back to the human propensity of believing “I’m right, you’re
wrong”!
Galileo wrote the following to Johannes Kepler:
“My dear Kepler, I wish that we might laugh at the remarkable stupidity of the common herd. What do
you have to say about the principal philosophers of this academy who are filled with the stubbornness of
an asp and do not want to look at either the planets, the moon or the telescope, even though I have freely and deliberately offered them the opportunity a thousand times? Truly, just as the asp stops its ears, so do these philosophers shut their eyes to the light of truth."
It seems to me that the pattern throughout our history is clear; closing our minds to new ideas or
thoughts has been a fool’s errand. More often than not, it has delayed humanity from benefiting from
some major breakthrough. Not to mention, needless suffering and death. My hope is one day we learn
from these lessons and open our minds to new ideas, methods and possibilities. I am encouraged
because I do see this happening more and more each day, but we have a long way to go. We need to
accept that we have been, and always will be on a road to discovery and learning. It’s our birthright. It’s
our destiny. It’s part of this gig. Embrace it, and by all means “be the heretic”, we need you.
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