Via John ColeApparently Gregg Easterbrook had previously claimed string theory is intelligent design for rocket scientists, an unproven/unprovable grand theory based on faith. His point is to knock those smarty-pants scientists off their podium of alleged scientific dispassion and reveal them as no different than the religious fundamentalists.
One problem, the two situations are not the same. Intelligent design is directly refuted by the scientific evidence not to mention common sense. Who among us cannot easily think of a dozen flawed design elements of humanity for every element that is supposedly too complex to occur through evolution.
String theory on the other hand, simply lacked proof one way or the other. Limitations in our ability to understand had prevented any definitive assertion. But apparently scientific advances have allowed some progress in support of string theory.
The scientific method is such that ideas are able to be considered until something is discovered that specifically refutes them, in which they are adjusted or replaced by new ideas that capture both the old and new understanding. That means there is a lot of unknowns and nothing is known for sure. But at least science has an honesty in its doubt.
