Eh? Empirical proof is not a hypothetical theorem.
Empirical proof is something proved experimentally.

And I never said anything different, JJ.  All I pointed out was that it is possible to empirically prove a hypothetical theorem.

It's not faith that makes a doctor prescribe, it's knowledge of a drug's effects.  Then that knowledge is enlarged upon if a certain patient comes back feeling worse.

That's interesting, JJ.  I have heard several doctors express faith in medicines, not because they believe they will work 100 times out of 100, but because they and others like them have experienced the efficacy of the stuff.  Furthermore, some even say that they don't know how or why they work, just that they have seen them do so.  Doesn't this sound remarkably similar to what many Christians - even non-Christian religious people say?

Well, one is fooling oneself if one is basing one's hope on an unfounded assumption that others can see is erroneous - so I can be an authority up to a point if I spot that in others.

Well, I can think of several scientists who fell foul of this thinking when their findings were treated as impossible/false/contrived/ or whatever (think of the reponse to Einstein and his relativity theory) - and not a few politicians 

By the way, the Soviets had a whole governmental department working on disproving the existence of God.  When the USSR fell, it was found that they had been unsuccessful, despite some 50 years' of trying!