I find this enitre report on the study to be highly suspect, for example it says "Previous work has shown that people with more efficient brain connections score higher on tests of intelligence", a statement so profoundly free of any connection to actual science that it goes well beyond religious. I've seen plenty of hard workers sail right past highly intelligent people in academia and employment circles.
They didn't say that efficient brains are more successful in life, only that they are more intelligent. That would be a connection that science could easily establish, with no religion involved. On the other hand, if they said that efficient brains make for better/more successful people, then I would have to agree with you.