I do appreciate that if anyone could facilitate a pleasant, productive dialogue between the atheist/theist camps it would probably be Doc. I don't really know the details of his personal journey, but it sounds like an excellent background for viewing both sides of the argument. However, I think your last line is the real takeaway: just because I bet this community could handle a religious debate, doesn't mean I'm willing to go in guns a'blazing and start it. Some things are just better left alone, like North Korea or Felix on gameday.
I do find your hinting about your personal view intriguing. There's a great clip of Niel deGrasse Tyson and the devil himself Richard Dawkins. Dawkins launches into one of his patented lambastings, but then Tyson cuts him off. "Look, Richard, it's not that I don't agree with you. You know we're in complete agreement on whether God has any place in scientific discussion. But I'd like to point something out: even among the elite scientists of the world, people with multiple degrees in hard sciences, there is still a 20% religious rate. These are luminaries of their fields, extraordinarily well versed in the nature of the universe, and they still believe in God. This shows that religion is not something that can be definitively countered with knowledge. Apparently the human brain is hardwired such that there will always be religious people in society, so we just have to learn to work with them."
I'm probably badly misquoting him on the details, the substance is definitely true if not accurate. It's really stuck with me ever since I heard it.