The majority of scientist once believed in alchemy, most believed in the Piltdown Man fraud for four decades. When J. Harlan Bretz first suggested that the scablands of Eastern Washington State were created by a massive flood the narrow minded scientific community accused him of being a zealot peddling a flood legend. Bretz was actually not making any theological argument.

The notion that scientists aren’t as susceptible to financial self interests, prejudices, biases and mass grouptink as other professions, is utter nonsense. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Harlen_Bretz

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/study-reveals-culprit-behind-piltdown-man-one-science-s-most-famous-hoaxes