Methodological materialism

Methodological materialism is a viewpoint often found in atheistic science. Rather than rejecting the possibility of supernatural causes for events outright — this would be philosophical materialism (also called ontological materialism or metaphysical materialism) -methodological materialists do not explore the possibility of supernatural causes for events because those claims are disparaged as being difficult to test scientifically.

A methodological materialist would not say "God does not exist". Instead he would say, for example, "We cannot test whether God exists, so we will look and teach only explanations, no matter how implausible, that are materialistic."