Aleister Crowley, author

The conscience of the world is so guilty that it always assumes that people who investigate heresies must be heretics; just as if a doctor who studies leprosy must be a leper. Indeed, it is only recently that science has been allowed to study anything without reproach. -Aleister Crowley, author (1875-1947)

I think that Crowley is mistaken on two counts. First, I don't believe that the world assumes that people who investigate heresies are heretics. I don't, and I haven't found that people in general do. In fact many would argue the opposite, that in general people are rather more gullible than cynical in regard to heresy-hunters. Secondly, I think that science has had a rather free hand for most of its relatively short life, although the current period seems increasingly marked by attempts by some scientists to quash certain lines of inquiry that threaten the accepted scientific orthodoxy.

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