Latest score: Science 1, Nutjobs 0

Checking out the various timezones this morning, I see no signs of a rolling rapture anywhere.

So the reason-based community has an unblemished record against conservative ideology, Tea-screamers and religious loonies in the prediction department.

It is virtually impossible to prove that a theory is true, since contradictions to it could arise at almost any time, especially as observation methods become refined. However, it is possible to disprove a theory by seeing if its predictions come to pass. This is how theories are tested.

So far, no form of theorizing has turned out better than observation, reasoning and mathematics. Not only that, but science acknowledges its failures and readjusts its theories when fundamental contradictions arise -- though, admittedly, the recalibration may take some time.

What will the end-of-time folks do now? Probably nothing. Those who got rid of their houses and their children's college savings will have to wander around aimlessly; unfortunately, a new crop of religious loonies will spring up to take their place, with even more bizarre predictions of the end of the world, based on the same biblical number silliness that has led their ilk astray for millenia.

Okay, okay, I know: What part of beneath contempt don't I understand?

(On a different scoring note: Too bad for the Cubbies, who hadn't played at Fenway Park for nearly a hundred years: they lost to the Red Sox 15 - 5 last night in Boston. I actually feel sorry for them...)