[joe_smith]

thus flies in the face of one of the basic tenets of the scientific method.

maybe the "basic tenets of the scientific method" need to be updated as new theory's and scientific models are updated or new ones found

Its not science that does this ... its people’s interpretation, and the media’s presentation of it Ie: science is ‘believed’, becomes ‘true’, 'faith' develops and then morphs into just another ‘religion’.

Yes the old elephant in the room of science raises it head again "human consciousness" lol

"There is no such thing as objective science. We cannot separate the observer and the means of observation from that which is observed because Consciousness is embedded in the process"

Have Hawking and Mlodinow fallen for this as well ?

I don't think so, if you want to make new discovery and solve problems you have to think on the wild side. You don't solve problems by going around in a circle you have to think outside of it.

So, like it or not, because there is no other consistent model, we must be part of the universe described by M-Theory. A leap of faith ?

sometimes "faith" is all we have to go by

the authors state that an acceptable model of nature must agree with experimental data and make predictions that can be tested

how do you test the untestable?? if its untestable dose that mean its not true by the scientific method?? because if it is true but untestable then the scientific method to test all things in the universe maybe wrong.

An interesting review (and thought provoking book)

I have it but haven't read it yet - so many books so little time