Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, was a monk. That's why the basic unit of most life is called a cell.
Actually, I think the word "cell" was used in this context by Robert Hooke in the 1660's. He looked at material under a microscope and thought they looked like monks' cells, all lined up. Mendel came along 200 years later.
But that's a quibble. The important point is that science was advancing, and the practioners had no problem viewing the world from within a religious mindset. It did not hold them back.