""The words "dogma" , "dogmatic" "doctrine" and "doctrinaire" only ever seem to get used these days in their negative, pejorative senses - to denote hidebound, uncritical ways of thinking.""

Not just the word in many cases Mick, but also the systems they describe, and the people whose mindset they describe, are hidebound and uncritical.

Almost every scientist is busily trying to change previous theories by gaining new knowledge and producing new ways of looking at just about everything in his own area of expertise in the Universe.

Hardly hidebound or uncritical and definitely neither doctrinaire, nor a follower of dogma.

Can you say the same of those who rely on "You've got to have faith"?

Don T.