No conflict between faith and science, eh?

[FatAndFaithless]

Again, if theists were to say something like "if our religious claims come into conflict with verifiable, testable, empirical evidence, the religious claim is then discarded", then I suppose that would be..."okay"...

Which interestingly enough, that's precisely what my father told me. Of the few times he would ever speak in front of me, he would rip on creationists and say science trumps the bible on literal claims like that. He's still a Christian, and I actually called him out on the conflict of him being a scientist and a Christian when I was fifteen and telling my parents I didn't believe in God. He said it boiled down to faith and that I "just wouldn't understand."

The thing is, he's the smartest man I've ever met personally. I mean, he has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry for Christ's sake, so he's certainly not ignorant of the principles behind empirical observation. I just can't wrap my head around it, but my parents are so passive about religion that it's literally a non-issue. I do notice he gets a little uncomfortable when I bring up religion, though.

I wish more theists were like him.

I'd just ask him..what about the beliefs he holds in his religion that...can't be tested (or verified or falsified) by investigation? What basis would he have for holding those beliefs, and isn't accepting a conclusion before sufficient evidence has been provided...kind of the definition of unscientific?