[betty boop]

No, you are just trying to put an extra layer of confusion in between the 'final cause' and the creation.

Now you are attributing personal motives to me of which you can have no direct knowledge whatsoever.

You wrote: "True, math may be unreasonably effective sometimes, but it is useless without data to back it up."

Which seems to miss the point that where math is unreasonably effective, the data "backs it up."

I have to tell you of my very strong sense of where "contemporary science" is nowadays. It's as if the entire scientific community has willfully shut itself up in a very small, cramped, and by now thoroughly stuffy and foetid room — and promises to destroy anyone who tries to open a door or window, so to let in light and fresh air. Metaphorically, to me the situation is akin to that described by Plato in his famous Myth of the Cave....

Because science is fundamentally a public enterprise (according to Einstein and Bohr at least), this is a very concerning situation to me.

JMHO FWIW.

[LeGrande]

It's as if the entire scientific community has willfully shut itself up in a very small, cramped, and by now thoroughly stuffy and foetid room — and promises to destroy anyone who tries to open a door or window, so to let in light and fresh air.

Where science is used to promote a political, religious, or moneyed agenda I would have to agree, but it has always been that way. Many people would rather die than change their opinion.