Truth be told, even to the point of being a fruitcake about it. By modern Christian standards, Newton would most likely be considered a cultist.
More recently, Kurt Godel, one of the greatest logicians of all time, was also a religious believer.
Yeah, so?
The notion that religious belief necessarily cramps the intellect,
...is a straw man. That's not the argument that is made.
that atheism is essential to thinking clearly and accurately,
...is a claim that I've never seen anyone actually make. Perhaps you should deal with people's actual arguments.
is a modern superstition and conceit.
So is the belief that faith is somehow a great enhancer of scientific ability or a special boon to the acquisition of scientific knowledge. On average, it seems to me to be rather a wash.
Taking the current subject for example: If anything, Newton's obsession with fringe religious research (and alchemy, but that's another subject) wasted valuable intellect and time that would have been far more profitably spent doing further work in mathematics or science.
How many discoveries were lost to mankind, or delayed by decades or centuries, because Newton spent a significant fraction of his life noodling around with Revelations (producing nothing of vaule) instead of doing more productive research?
"Taking the current subject for example: If anything, Newton's obsession with fringe religious research (and alchemy, but that's another subject) wasted valuable intellect and time that would have been far more profitably spent doing further work in mathematics or science."
You picked the absoulte worst example in Newton. Newton only did science in his search for God.
No religion, no science out of Newton.
How many discoveries were lost to mankind, or delayed by decades or centuries, because Newton spent a significant fraction of his life noodling around with Revelations (producing nothing of vaule) instead of doing more productive research?"
I've often thought about these things, too. But I have come to the conclusion that when the time is ripe, the discoveries will be made. I think this for Gallileo, Newton and Einstein. Even without these men the discoveries would happen, probably by the combined works of many, but still made. Calculus was invented by Leibnitz and Newton simultaneously. His laws would have become obvious, eventually. Gallileo's works had roots in several other's. Someone would have made these discoveries if they hadn't existed.
Einstein, I think is the greatest, simply because there was incredible pressure and competition 100 years ago. He was the one with the vision to make the leap. Newton and Gallileo worked by themselves and without significant competition.
I also think that Einstein's work, while we see little of it in daily life, will have the greatest impact on the future.
So chalk one up for old Al.