Is it wrong to make assumptions if you're a scientist

I find that I am very skeptical of the current theories that we have in astrophysics. I'm not very far in my studies being only a freshmen in college, but the concepts that we learn about although intriguing, I find are very wishful. For example, the scientists Newton and Einstein, although brilliant, have literally been assumed to be correct by a large part of the scientific world. And I know that there are scientists that spend time doing research that would prove them wrong, but a large part of the scientific society still assumes them to be correct.

Personally when I think about bold assumptions, I think Einstein. How one could make such an assumption as light being the cosmological speed limit, I find most boggling. Yet what could be even more boggling, is how people react to this assumption and believe it based on solely Einstein's credibility as a brilliant physicist. The fact that 'dark matter' exists yet no one has any idea what it is, is a problem based solely on the fact that Newton's gravitational laws are correct. What if they weren't correct? Is it possible that scientists as a whole aren't skeptical enough? Or am I just too skeptical? I know that a certain amount of skepticism is a good thing in a scientist, but reinventing the wheel is just a waste a time for the most part. So again, my main question being, is it wrong to make assumptions if you're a scientist?

Is it wrong to make assumptions if you're a scientist?

Absolutely not. However, you have to be dispassionate about your assumptions, throw them away when they don't fit. Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b240PGCMw…


I find that I am very skeptical of the current theories that we have in astrophysics.

That's fine. Listen to this segment now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9iJMWJdy…


have literally been assumed to be correct by a large part of the scientific world.