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People challenge orthodoxy and are willing to admit their crazy ideas are wrong all the time.

The problem is that outside the field of mathematics, challenging the orthodoxy worked up an angry mob and they probably torched the person's house before it could be worked out.

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What is true is that since we have computer-based theorem provers / proof checkers, "working it out" becomes a matter of getting your challenge past one of those, and the orthodoxy will have a hard time arguing against that.

But OTOH you see many people in other disciplines challenging the orthodoxy (in Physics: string theorists, MOND proponents, etc.) and while their views aren't always taken fully serious, their houses aren't being torched either.

Clearly some sciences are better than others.

You can put air quotes around sciences if it helps make my point any clearer.

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