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Also, I've previously posted this over 6 months ago:

I shall remind you that the scientific enterprise is not in the ‘belief’ business. Science’s primary mission is to understand the reality of how things work in nature. This is purely an intellectual activity and does not require the operation of any faith or belief system. I use a broom to sweep out my garage because it’s the best tool for dealing with the reality of grunge on my garage floor. But I don’t ‘believe’ in brooms. I consider the reality of the broom in terms of my dirty garage floor.

Scientists seek the best tools to help them comprehend the reality of the natural world in which they live. To the extent that a theory is useful, it will be used. To the extent that a theory is not useful it won’t be used. Scientific theories are the tools for scientists like wrenches are the tools of mechanics. We use tools in our lives where they are most appropriate but we are not required to ‘believe’ in them.

"Scientists seek the best tools to help them comprehend the reality of the natural world in which they live. To the extent that a theory is useful, it will be used. To the extent that a theory is not useful it won’t be used."

You haven't been inside a science department lately, have you? You haven't been inside a science classroom lately, have you? I'm sorry...I'm just laughing my eyes out at your post. Science teachers (and academics in general) lord "theories" over students as if they were cast-in-stone facts. There is no discource. There is no humility.

Inside the academic halls, it's a struggle for money, power, and prestiege. If you've spent 23 years building your theory, you don't abandon it easily. You're aware of the whole social contruction of truth theories from sociology, I trust? Intelligent people tend to hyperconform to one another and staunchly defend their pet theories -- especially where rewards are in place (money, prizes, government posts). You say that scientists are immune to all of these things. I'd like to say "don't make me laugh" but you already have...

The concept of scientist as the thoroughly dispassionate disinterested observer and recorder does not fit any university within the known universe...