Can religious believers think science important and the universe glorious?

I’m mystified by the implicit insistence of certain atheist polemicists that religious faith precludes the acceptance of science and/or interferes with a sense of the wonder and grandeur of the cosmos:

“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and conclude, ‘This is better than we thought!  The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant’?  Instead they say, ‘No, no no!  My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way!  A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.”  (Carl Sagan)

“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.”  (Richard Dawkins)

I can think of no real reason why this should be so.  Moreover, there are far more than enough deeply religious scientists, to say nothing of religious non-scientists who love and respect science and thrill at the vastness and rich complexity of the cosmos, to demonstrate that faith and scientific interest are quite compatible.

And worlds without number have I created . . .  But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.  And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.  And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words.  (Moses 1:33, 35, 37-38)

“And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still.”  (Moses 7:30)

Posted from San Antonio, Texas