Quote Originally Posted by Inside This Fantasy View Post
I don't understand people who write off string theory as "garbage". How is it reasonable to toss aside a theory that is backed by a significant amount of the science community, a large amount of very coherent theoretical work, and a few predictions that will be tested as soon as the LHC is up and running. I can see betting against it, but I can't see why you would want to turn people away from it. It just seems closed minded to me. Sorry to take a hit at religious people, but its the same as someone being interested in learning more about hinduism and a christian telling them hinduism is garbage and throwing the bible at them.
One way or another, we as laymen can't really comment. At least not until we understand stuff like this. Although I know Wendy is going for a degree in mathematics, I'm fairly certain she is not quite at that level yet.

The problem with string theory for the layman is that there is absolutely no way to test its validity. We can't look at experiments because they don't exist and we can't look at the mathematical theory because it is incredibly complex. String theory really is just a series of complex guesses that are way beyond our practical knowledge of physics.