> There is no reasonable explanation of electromagnetism that doesn't logically imply special relativity. In other words, the experimental confirmations of Max

> There is no reasonable explanation of electromagnetism that doesn't logically imply special relativity. In other words, the experimental confirmations of Maxwell electrodynamics can also be considered as evidence for SR. That's fine, but it contradicts your claim that SR's acceptance was purely "theoretical" and abstract. > These theoretical explanations were adequate by itself and did not need experimental verification to be celebrated. Einstein took a similar position. As one story goes, when he was asked what he would think if experimental tests contradicted the predictions of relativity, he said something like "Then I would feel sorry for the Lord, because the theory is correct." All of which does not at all change the fact that, unless and until a theory makes accurate predictions, it cannot claim to be "scientific truth". "Solving theoretical contradictions" is fine and a worthwhile endeavor, but it's still not the same as making accurate predictions. String theorists wax lyrical about the same wonderful things you mention, but that doesn't change the fact that, unless and until string theory makes accurate predictions, it cannot claim "scientific truth". > the physics community always knew that the Higgs boson existed. Otherwise, they wouldn't spend billion plus dollars on speculation. By the same argument, supersymmetry would have been discovered at the LHC, since the physics community "knew" that supersymmetry was "right". But of course this prediction by many physicists is now notorious for its wrongness. Beautiful theories sometimes get spoiled by ugly facts. Nature doesn't always do what theorists expect. As for professorships, obviously a professorship in theoretical physics is going to be based on someone's theoretical work, which might be judged by different standards than the standard of "scientific truth". Many theorists have come up with theories that didn't turn out to be right. That doesn't make them bad theorists. It just shows that theories need to be tested to see whether they make accurate predictions. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Nobody gets it right all the time.