Non-Overlapping Magisteria?

Over the next couple of months I'm hoping to visit a few interesting religious groups, to get a feel for them - what they believe, how they act, who attends their events. So, all being well, after this week's report into Christian Science you can expect to hear about the Theosophical Society, Druids, and maybe more!

Some have argued that religion should be out of bounds for skeptics, that the two spheres of religion and science are what's known as NOMA - Non Overlapping Magisteria. Basically, the idea is that science deals with the physical, and religion the metaphysical or spiritual. This might be the case for any religion that avoids making any claims about the physical world, but I've not met one yet!

Although Christian Science (see below) is a particularly egregious example, religious groups always seem to have claims about how their god affects the physical world - natural disasters, answering prayers, healing the sick, making people rich, bringing happiness and contentment. All of these examples are instances where a metaphysical god is impinging on our physical world, and in each case that interaction can be measured by science. And, as we all know, attempts to measure these phenomena invariably fall flat on their face.

Often there's a hand-waving excuse as to why this is the case - the effect is subtle, or this particular god needs to keep their interventions hidden so that people can have faith. But this kind of get-out clause should be no more acceptable to skeptics than James Hydrick's claim that stage lighting stopped his mental powers from working, or Uri Geller's excuse on live TV that he didn't feel strong. The idea of a god who set the wheels of the universe in motion and no longer tinkers is hard to argue against, but it's a rare believer who has faith in such a remote, untestable god. For the majority of religious beliefs that are accompanied by an idea that god is pulling the levers and pressing the buttons of our lives, I believe skeptics should not shy away from questioning those claims.