As a woman, I would like to gracefully apologise for this response. That one claim, "it can't be real if it can't be held or doesn't exist as a tangible item" is very close-minded. What about dreams, thoughts, emotions, gravity, energy and so on?

I used to work for a scientific recruitment agency whereby I had to deal with recuitment for scientists with PhDs and Master's (remember the Arctic scientific exploration a fair few years ago? - I helped recruit those scientists!) and believe me, some of these people had no common sense (and this was before I even started my university degree!). It's brilliant having a Master's Degree or a PhD, even a degree (I am about to complete one myself) but that doesn't stop people's closed mind-sets.

I even find that some people are close minded in the sense they let their qualifications go to their head and think they're better than everyone else. Just because they have a PhD in quantum physics or medicine doesn't make them any better than anyone else. A brain surgeon might be brilliant with brain surgery, but that doesn't mean s/he can realign the Hydron Collider.