The scientific method assumes there is a real universe in which everything is ruled by invariant physical laws. This assumption has worked very well, for people with widely disparate beliefs, including the monumentally stupid post-miodernists. It does not claim that we can know anything with absolute certainty, but that we can formulate increasing accurate pictures of reality through repeatable observation, reason and logic, testing hypotheses (which is all we have) and rejecting them when they prove false, No hypothesis can be proved true, because we cannot test all cases, but they can be disproved through repeated observations that contradict them. This is how science advances. Peer review by experts (in any field amenable to the scientific method) is key to publication of research. For more details, see Notes from a Dying Planet, 2004 - 2006. Notes from a Dying Planet, 2004-2006: One Scientist's Search for Solutions , Paul B. Brown - Amazon.com