Nature of Heresy

Consider our divine rights as humans to believe and live according to those beliefs, speaking freely on how we believe. I am left wondering how people who believe differently than I do feel it in their best interest to protest my beliefs. I am well within my rights - constitutional and, according to the Declaration of Independence, divinely acquired - to talk about and live according to those beliefs as long as doing so does not infringe on others' rights to the same.

Further consider that should a man believe certain principles to be divine, asking him to recant or speak contrary to those principles would be infringing on his rights to believe or live according to those beliefs.

I would never presume to suggest that another's beliefs are any less valid than those I hold dear. Although I might consider certain beliefs to be divinely sure - a.k.a. factual - I cannot presume others have come to the same conclusion. I would not think to hold a man to lower esteem for having convictions that are contrary to mine. I only ask for the same consideration not only for myself but for everyone.

If I should consider certain principles to be divinely sure, my actions would be heretic should I chose to recant or apologize for them. I would then be hardly capable of doing so under any outside pressure which was less powerful than my conviction. A dedication to what one considers truth would hardly be worth anything if this was not the case.

No, I should not think to suggest anyone has the right to tell anyone else what to say or how to believe. The freedom to make these decisions certainly is divine in nature so it truly is the heretic who lives contrary to his own beliefs or suggests another should do the same.