Great post as always @mountainwashere! Keep up the good work.

Keeping critical is key to the big picture. Many many scientists in human history proposed wild theories (e.g. plate tectonics) that many outright rejected.

Conforming to theories did not work for them and some of them suffered (e.g. Alfred Wegner).

In 1926, over ninety years ago W. M. Davis wrote about "THE VALUE OF OUTRAGEOUS GEOLOGICAL HYPOTHESES".

He basically argues, well ahead of his time that being very open minded and not being afraid to re-address long standing theories are key to evolution of thought. Here is a link to his paper below. Keep up the awesome work! The world is strange and we have a long way to go until we "figure it out"...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjUxu6r1qvbAhVEl5AKHUH1CvUQFggmMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpages.mtu.edu%2F~raman%2FSilverI%2FMiTEP_ESI-2%2FHypotheses_files%2F1926-Outrageous.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3XOk11_cLadd57XEDZttgJ