His Theory of Relativity (ToR) is a case in point: You should suspect there's something basically wrong when observed phenomena don't fit what the theory says, and physicists keep having to come up with new “fixes” (like “Dark Matter”) to make the theory seem to work.
Prior to Einstein, physicists were starting to explore electrical/magnetic phenomena as the primary forces in the cosmos. While such adherents of an electrical-based universe fell out of favor after the bomb was invented, they never completely died out. Today, with “Relativity” having more and more trouble explaining what we see and measure, physicists are reexamining the electric theory. They're finding that it not only explains/predicts what the ToR does, but also nicely explains the nasty problems that plague Einstein's theory.
For those who say that math models reality, so there's no problem with a math-based theory:
Consider the bumblebee; all modern mathematical models of aerodynamics PROVE it cannot fly. However, the bumblebee, being ignorant of the mathematics of aerodynamics, flys merrily on its way!
With all due respect, your post contained more errors about Einstein, relativity and physics in general than I would have thought possible in such a short space.
A few corrections:
-Einstein was, first and foremost, a physicist who had a uniquely intuitive understanding of the concepts his theories explained. He was merely an adequate mathematician.
-Einstein’s work has not set physics back.
-Einstein’s work was only tangentially related to nuclear energy. It was primarily related to explaining how real objects actually behave.
-Much of his work greatly advanced our understanding of how the universe works.
-He came up with two separate and independent theories of relativity. Special and General.
-Relativity is not one of the universal forces and his relativity theories did not cause a lapse in work on electromagnetic force theories. Electromagnetism and Relativity are not in competition.
-No scientists claim any theory is valid without extensive and compelling physical evidence. With only math to back it up there is no theory and all good scientists agree with this.
-There are no “modern mathematical models of aerodynamics” that “prove” a bumblebee “cannot fly”.
Those things you cited are all something like urban legends of science and keep getting repeated by non-scientists. They are nonsense.
Not really sure where you're getting this from. Everything I have read points to the opposite. General relativity may be incomplete, however, there are dozens of different experimental proofs to support it, including lensing and redshift experiments. Here is the most recent example from 2 days ago:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100310-einstein-theory-general-relativity-gravity-dark-matter-proof/
“With all due respect to a great man, Einstein was first and foremost, a mathematician.”
That is incorrect. Albert Einstein was a brilliant physicist who figured things out without math through his legendary thought experiments; and then got help from his mathematician friends such as Marcel Grossmann and Tullio Levi-Civita to turn his ideas into rigorous theories.