[cross posted at uncommondescent: What Qualifies as Science in the Wonderful World of Disney]
The scientific enterprise entails:
1. observation
2. hypothesis
3. testing
Consider this passage from the class text of an introductory cosmology class I took once upon a time:
galaxies farther than 4300 megaparsecs from us are currently moving away from us at speeds greater than that of light. Cosmological innocents sometimes exclaim, “Gosh! Doesn’t this violate the law that massive objects can’t travel faster than the speed of light?” Actually, it doesn’t. The speed limit that states that massive objects must travel with v < c relative to each other is one of the results of special relativity, and refers to the relative motion of objects within a static space. In the context of general relativity, there is no objection to having two points moving away from each other at superluminal speed due to the expansion of space.
page 39
Introduction to Cosmology
by Barbara ryden