I do not know what that even means.

Atheism is a belief position on a very narrow topic. In itself, it has nothing to do with science.

It has to do with critical thinking. One of the things that tends to arise from critical thinking is atheism. Another is scientific endeavor. There's association, but not cause.

I did not know that but will take it under advisement.

The article just says Woese "believed" but doesn't give much detail about that belief, and Woese apparently had no evidence to offer, just some kind of affection for religion, but I can see how the article serves the purposes of the "Rational Religion" site.
So, thanks for posting; it's a topic worthy of discussion, but I'm giving Umar Nasser my Nothingburger Award for his article.

I agree that atheism is not based on science, but calling it an alien invasion is a bit over the top. The question if there is a god or not has no impact on science. You can be a believer, an atheist or call yourself an agnostic but as long as you stick to the scientific method there is no conflict there. You don't have to be anything.
There is another thing I'd like to mention. I get the feeling that your definition of atheism is someone who believes there is no god. But many people actually think that atheism is just a lack of a belief in god, so there would only be two opposing positions regarding the belief in a god: atheism and theism. Agnosticism in this view is about the question if you can have knowledge about the existence of a god. So there could be agnostic atheists, agnostic theists, gnostic atheists and gnostic theists.
If you don't want to adopt this language keep in mind that this is a fairly common use these days and you might want to avoid misunderstandings.

I prefer to say that all scientists must be agnostic. If you want to defend science you MUST be agnostic. Why would anyone starting to prove and advance scientific knowledge by ensuring a level playing field be anything else but agnostic. We must assume, that is, lack of predisposition and/ or bias?