Marcy,
I agree with your points in your first paragraph, but do not have good answers to your questions in your second paragraph.
Warm regards, Michael
Coincidentally, I am listening to NPR's To the Best of Our Knowledge. The program is dealing with questions such as "what is the nature of science." One would think science is pretty straight forward, pure reasoning until we arrive at the truth. The examples are legion that is not so!
Marcy