It could be down to the flame-war detector being triggered: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22159031
He said that since it was already taken down they would need "a good reason" to put it back up. And that the article's topic was "generic and sensationalist" so they don't feel like they should keep it up.
In my opinion, I think one of the moderators is more athiest and maybe it conflicted with their values and rubbed them the wrong way, so they decided to bury it when the "flame-war" detector went off, even though there was no flame war.