>>12
>In fact up until recently (e.g. the past couple hundred years), religion was one of the biggest motivating factors for the pursuit of science and technology.
First, such a statement cannot be backed up by evidence and is nothing but baseless conjecture. After all, we don't have an alternate, religion-free universe to compare with. How do we know we might not be better off without it? A common example is art: much of our great masterpieces were funded by the Church during the Renaissance. But who knows what might have been if someone else had commissioned it, or if the Church hadn't taken Europe into the Dark Ages, possibly the single largest setback in all of human history, to begin with.
Second, while some religions may have had a positive impact, Christianity has fought the advancement of science and technology every step of the way. It just doesn't seem like it was such a big deal when you compare it to how ape shit the American Christians are going over Darwin, even 150 years later.
Third, Science itself is only a few hundred years old. Technology really didn't change much between 10,000 BCE and the 1500s. There were only a few notable exceptions, like Egypt and Greece, and the Christians wiped 'em out.