Hello Dave, thanks for the comment and I appreciate the effort to get a discussion started. Philosophy and belief systems do affect science on a broader science community level as well as individual level.; One of the best explanations of this as it relates to quantum mechanics is a book by Alan Becker called What is Real. He documents very clearly how the philosophy of positivism, for example, affected the scientists dealing with the quantum discoveries and how philosophies continue to affect this area. It also seems clear in biology and evolutionary studies that not only presuppositions drive much research but even dogma. It's not only me saying that. There is much ferment and discussion within evolutionary biology about this, for example, check out thethirdwayofevolution.com.

It seems whenever a scientist such as these two highlighted talk about their faith, many such as yourself say they are just responding to the gaps--the old god of the gaps concern. That is certainly a temptation and a legitimate issue, but I think Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome project and now director of the National Institutes of Health has pointed out in his book The Language of God, that belief in God in light of science does not necessarily imply a retreat to the gaps. In fact, the promissory materialism exhibited in much of evolutionary biology and the mind-body science demonstrates something that could be called "science of the gaps"-- continuing belief that science will eventually answer every mystery. To me it is reminiscent of alchemy where for hundreds of years the smartest "scientists" of the day pursued changing lead into gold, things we now understand from science are impossible--at least in this universe.