Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Freeman Dyson is being persecuted by adherents of the newest religion: global warmism. Note the title of this essay. The term "heretic" is a religious term, not a scientific term. What we have here are people who are progressives first and scientists second, attacking the persons of those who deviate from their politico-religious orthodoxy. This is common in academia. The worst abuse is reserved for those who once adhered to the religion but have walked away from it. These people are viewed as heretics (or, to use a political term, traitors). They must be vilified. Their character must be assassinated, their integrity impugned, their credibility impeached, and, in order to complete the project, their work delegitimized. (I know whereof I speak. As soon as I announced my conversion to conservatism, in 2003, I became the target of vicious personal attacks by philosophy professors and their student sycophants.) This isn't science; it's religion. Indeed, it's dogmatic religion, replete with excommunication of backsliders. Universities have become monasteries. The irony, of course, is that progressives accuse conservatives of wanting to create a theocracy. They are, as usual, projecting.