“The preponderance of atheists in science is pretty much a modern gatekeeping thing.”
You bring up some interesting thoughts, but you omit some.
Science is about discovery of the truth where ever it leads.
The Church you referred to silenced, sometimes violently
discoveries that on the face of them dispute the bible.
Bible is not a science text.
Our world was made in 7 of God’s days. Not ours.
God made the land, sun, and planted the seeds. They took millions of our years to grow. Can’t handle that observation?
FO.
There is no such thing as an Atheist in a war firefight.
That is human nature, you don’t agree, then you aren’t human
“There are no atheists in foxholes” I think is the adage you’re looking for. But as far as searching for the truth, science and religion are two different things. I sometimes compare it to Picasso’s paintings vs. Picasso himself. You can study his paintings, but apart from a few insights it would be a very clumsy way of trying to know Picasso himself.
Christianity equates truth with God. Christianity says God cannot lie.
It was Christianity’s worship of the truth, combined with the printing press, the reformation, and the renaissance which resulted in science and the scientific revolution.
In Islam, the dominant theology came to be that Allah can change the composition of past, present, and future, at will and will do so. Allah is also the “best” liar and deceiver.
Thus a search for laws of nature in Islam came to be regarded as foolish and futile.