Agreed there are a lot of unknowns.
This is, apparently, where you and I differ: If God is really all powerful, then God can easily, and metaphorically, tossed out a handful of sand over 13B years ago knowing it would grow into the garden we know as the Natural Universe. Do you agree God is eternal? Outside time? What is even a trillion years to a power that is eternal? It's nothing. Time and Space are concepts inside our universe.
In fact, given that God created the Universe and all the natural laws within it, isn't studying the laws of the Universe divine? If God gave us brains, isn't the expectation that we are to use those brains? To study the give of life and the Universe given to us? I fail to see the reasons for denial here.