Yes, scientific progress tends to be empirically conservative. But people outside science (like the Eng Lit major) are often less interested in specific predict

Yes, scientific progress tends to be empirically conservative. But people outside science (like the Eng Lit major) are often less interested in specific predictions than in the overall picture of reality painted by our current best scientific theories. This picture does change quite radically from time to time. The history of different models of the atom (going back to the radically incorrect 'plum pudding' model) is a good example. To point this out is not to attack science. Indeed, science would be far less interesting and exciting if its entire history was nothing but a sequence of small and incremental refinements.