Discussions with colleagues at my college, Trinity, brought me in touch with ideas considered out of place by the majority in academia. Since that first contact I have had an interest in a number of such heresies, and in the factors causing such subjects to remain heresies for a very long period of time despite much evidence to the contrary. In two cases (the Intelligent Design hypothesis; the claim that water can have a memory) hostile reactions are so intense that rational discussion seems impossible.

After a discussion of the various factors involved in the barring from proper discussion of ideas considered heretical I conclude gloomily that perhaps in many cases only the passage of time can provide a remedy.