I bet you a gazillion pounds
the conservation of energy will not have been disproven, any more than "2+2=4" will have been disproven.

And no sersious scientist believed in 'God-given abilities' in 1900! Otherwise why would people have tried to make aeroplanes that worked just a few years later?

I'll tell you what's unique about the 20th century - the possibility that science may tell us not only how the universe works, but why it exists in the first place. That idea had never existed before.
( Mr. Tea 'ulmmm'/'mmneurgh', Thu 4 May 2006, 2:58, archived)

People had tried to explain the origin of the universe since the beginning of religion.
And non-traditional mathematics have proven that 2+2 can also equal -4, 2, 1, 0, or 5.

As with every vocation, there are multiple methods of interpretation. As we advance into greater forms of physics, laws of the lower ones break down. At some point in science, whether 1000 or 100,000 years from now, we will find that EVERY law will break down under certain circumstances.
( Digeridude Lord Wellington's Beef Trapeze, Thu 4 May 2006, 3:02, archived)