Intelligence is selective and compartmentalized. It is also repressed by authoritarian religion. There are scientists (though, probably not specifically paleontologists) who are young earth creationists. All of this is made possible through compartmentalization and selective attention.

You can make a child believe anything, so a child indoctrinated with a god belief will carry those beliefs into adulthood, esp if the community also believes.

“Give me the child for the first seven years and I'll give you the man.”

― Jesuit maxim

Comfort and insurance against there actually not being one -plus the fact that some people really like the church services it provides a known in an uncertain world .

They’ve been brainwashed.