Science did not prevent me from doing any of this and the microscope and every other tool is just a construct of our immaterial intellects. So free yourself from scientism The scientific method is itself a being of reason and not provable by the scientific method. The empiro-metric method while quite useful for studying the intelligibility of the world comes short when it come to ontology. Ontological question are aided by these branches of science but the empiro-metric view can't be used to prove ontological questions. The three layers of abstraction Metaphysical, Mathematica, and Physica are not at odds to each other and we need to return to the view that theology is the queen of the sciences, though this does not change the importance of the other sciences. Faith vs. science is a silly debate when there is not a "versus" only an "and."

By the way I do highly recommend The Science Before Science: A Guide to Thinking in the 21st Century

Nothing must be held sacred. Question everything. God
is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any
charismatic prophet. You are all human beings who must make your way
through your life by thinking and learning, and you have the job of
advancing humanities’ knowledge by winnowing out the errors of past
generations and finding deeper understanding of reality. You will not
find wisdom in rituals and sacraments and dogma, which build only
self-satisfied ignorance, but you can find truth by looking at your
world with fresh eyes and a questioning mind.

- PZ Myers

No matter how excellent these thinkers (unbelievers) might be on other questions, on this question they nimbly shift their allegiance: Between the life they like and the demands of vocation (submission to the question), they choose their lives—ironically, the very failing for which they ridicule believers. A seeker of truth has to go where the truth can be found, and to go on until it is found, and both the atheist and the agnostic are early quitters.

Edward Tingley

I'm sorry I don't understand that quote. Could you explain.

I guess it doesn't make much sense out of context of the entire article, so here it goes: http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=21-05-020-f.

Basically, what the writer intends to say is that atheists claim to seek truth to the fullness, which is commendable but they fail to even consider Christianity. What is supposed to be free thought is close mindedness with the failure to honestly explore whether the teachings of Christ are truthful or not.