I agree that new atheism was a media-created fad. I have an article coming out on that soon. But I doubt that theism is ever authentically empirical in so far as it's implemented in a religion. Exoteric theology may mimic an empirical model in that the former is literalistic, but the discourses are different since the religious literalism is meant to be symbolic or metaphorical. Scientists have metaphors, too, but they're for popularizing their much more precise formulations. Theism is properly mythical and poetic, not empirical. Certainly, theists often think that God operates in the world, but they think he does so supernaturally and miraculously, not naturally. That's not really an empirical claim on their part.