The following premises are important to understanding the nature of science. Scientific knowledge is simultaneously reliable and tentative. Having confidence in scientific knowledge is reasonable while realizing that such knowledge may be abandoned or modified in light of new evidence or reconceptualization of prior evidence and knowledge. Among these are a demand for naturalistic explanations supported by empirical evidence that are, at least in principle, testable against the natural world. Other shared elements include observations, rational argument, inference, skepticism, peer review and replicability of work.
Creativity is a vital, yet personal, ingredient in the production of scientific knowledge.
Science, by definition, is limited to naturalistic methods and explanations and, as such, is precluded from using supernatural elements in the production of scientific knowledge. A primary goal of science is the formation of theories and laws, which are terms with very specific meanings. Laws are generalizations or universal relationships related to the way that some aspect of the natural world behaves under certain conditions. Theories are inferred explanations of some aspect of the natural world. However, not all scientific laws have accompanying explanatory theories.