Science and Religion cannot overlap.

[Michael]

Pickup. The point was simply that not everything in our lives is within the purview of science. No-one can live consistently with the view that only those things verifiable by science can be held to be true. Rather, science has a particular scope. Personally, I use it to investigate health and disease (and how we can best alleviate the suffering caused by disease). I don't use it to judge good from bad, for example. I love science, but I think those who try to subject everything to it misunderstand it.

I agree that no one uses science as the only method for action. Frankly the exercise would be exhausting. And I certainly don't choose my friends or pastimes based on science. Nor do I think science can establish good or bad.

But I do view the reasons I choose to do what I choose to do as natural. My moral choices may feel innate but they are informed by: instinct which is hereditary and actually innate and; culture, which also evolves and is taught formally and by immersion. If I want to know why I behave the way I do, or why my fellows behave the way they do, I don't fill in the gap with god. Instead I look at culture (which includes religion) and biology. Both the question of is there a god; and why do people believe in a god or god are ultimately scientific and historical questions.

The god hypothesis appears to be lacking in evidence. The Christian god hypothesis appears to be often at odds with the evidence. I do not entertain ideas at odds with the evidence long.

Jenny. You say the question of whether there is a God is a scientific one. What experiment do you think you could do that would test that?

Many scientists have worked on the presupposition that God exists, and that science serves to understand the natural world that God created. Science has clearly worked with both theistic and atheistic presuppositions. Indeed that has been the key motivation for many scientists. This, along with the fact that you can't test for God's existence by scientific experiment, (unless you can think of such an experiment) makes it pretty clear to me that the question of the existence of God is outside of the purview of science. The OP seems to make the mistaken, and logically flawed, leap then to the idea that God is incompatible with science (in the same way presumably that mathematics and poetry cannot both hold to truths), but generations of scientists would disagree. I am reminded of the old proverb 'those who say something can't be done should get out of the way of those already doing it' :-)

So, as a scientist and Christian, I love how science helps us explore 'creation', and have no problem with letting science inform me about all aspects of God's creation. There is no conflict in my own experience. (But I do accept that there are some forms of Christianity, who have a particular view of the bible, who do have problems with science. That form of Christianity is pretty rare in the UK and Europe, but I get the sense it is much more common in the US).