[/quote Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy not anything real or solid. But empirical science can study metaphysics and its claims and confirm or deny them.
I disagree. I'll explain in reference to your concern about G-d, which of course is a metaphysical concept.
If you're familiar with philosophy of science, you know that a testable hypothesis concerning the existence of G-d should allow for the possibility of the hypothesis to be disconfirmed. In fact, as Karl Popper has rightly observed, a suitable test of a hypothesis of interest is an attempt to establish something different from what you expect to find. That is, the hypothesis should be formulated in such a way that it can be empirically falsified. Properly designed studies are in fact structured in such a way that you rule out an alternate prediction or explanation. They're usually testing the Null Hypothesis. Another way to go at it is to test predictions that are based competing theories. In other words, pitting two different theories against each other.
For your purposes, in order to prove all the silly, deluded believers of the world wrong, you'd need a way to disconfirm the existence of G-d. Empirical studies involving hypothesis tests use controlled conditions, so that you can rule out causal mechanisms other than the ones you're studying. So, Tao, how would you design a replicable experiment where you run the analysis - first with, and then without - G-d in order to show that G-d's presence in the Universe has no effect on the Universe? This would be a decent start anyway if you're taking an empirical/scientific approach because a typical G-d concept will usually include something about G-d being the Creator.
Obviously, the kind of study you'd need to do is not an option. So here we are again: there is no way for you to disconfirm the existence of G-d. The issue is not amenable to hypothesis testing which is central to the scientific method. Hence, an empirical/scientific approach makes no sense. No workie.
The position you've adopted is not experimentally testable, which means that it is essentially meaningless within the real of knowing that you are dealing with. There is nowhere to go with it in that realm.
