A Critical View of "The Scientific Method"

While looking through some Wikipedia links concerning teachings about a Flat Earth, I came across the following website which expresses some criticism of the scientific method as it is often portrayed.  The site tries to emphasize that it is in no way opposed to science itself.  Here is an excerpt from the main page:

Discussions of methodology in science are clouded by a dreadful confusion because the phrase "the scientific method" is used in two very different ways, one appropriate and one highly misleading. The appropriate one speaks in a very general way of science as a powerful process for improving understanding. People who use the phrase in this general way may be criticizing dogmatic clinging to beliefs and prejudices, or appreciating careful and systematic reasoning about empirical evidence. Although vague, this general use of the phrase can be more or less appropriate.

On the other hand, the phrase is also commonly used in a much more specific sense -- an entirely misleading sense -- which implies that there is a unique standard method which is central to scientific progress. There is no such unique standard method -- scientific progress requires many methods -- but students in introductory science courses are taught that "The Scientific Method" is a straightforward procedure, involving testing hypotheses derived from theories in order to test those theories.

So far, I have only had the opportunity to read a few pages, but I'll comment more fully when I've had a chance to digest more data from the site, and cross-reference it with other sites.

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