So far as hypotheses are concerned let no one expect anything certain from astronomy which cannot furnish it lest he accept as the truth ideas conceived for another purpose and depart from this study a greater fool than when he entered it.

True science is never speculative it employs hypotheses as suggesting points for inquiry but it never adopts the hypotheses as though they were demonstrated propositions.

The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.

Science we are repeatedly told is the most reliable form of knowledge about the world because it is based on testable hypotheses. Religion by contrast is based on faith. The term 'doubting Thomas' well illustrates the difference.