Secular Heresy?

The word 'secular' means 'of this age' or 'of this world', from the Latin saecularis. In Atlantis, where the watchful eyes and mighty thunderbolts of the secular priesthood are ubiquitous, it is interesting to see how the population has been mobilised to partake of the responsibilities of that priesthood.

Of late, the voice that has gone out has been one of, "If you want better education, you should take more responsibility; if you want the poor to be fed, feed them yourselves; if you want religious extremism stopped, do your own self-policing or else the wrathful gauntlets of the thunder shall squeeze the neck of free expression."

Well, if we are to be self-policing, let us have public heresy trials. For opinions against science, let us be allowed to haul people up before the justiciars and examined before the experts; for religious opinions, let us be allowed to drag them in for theological sanction. And should any be found excommunicate thereafter, let them not practise their heresies either in labs or in churches, in pulpits or in classrooms. Let them be taxed, banned, or cast out. Why not?

And let no politician be immune. Perhaps in this way, we might actually cull the spirits of stupidity from among us. Or will other, more evilly daft, spirits come in to take those vacated places?