And the Greeks had problems .....
The ancient Greeks knew how to build steam engines - but why
bother when you've got slaves to do the work? The Anitkythera
mechanism seems to have been a toy for the amusement of
nobility rather than a practical device for the everyday world of
commerce and trade. The Greeks were also
stymied by an unbelievably clumsy way of writing numbers.
And the military dictatorship that was Rome had little time for anything
that wasn't immediately practical.
None of these problems were related to their religious beliefs however.
It should be noticed by those who enjoy knocking the effect of religion
on scientific development that modern science was born and grew up
in a very specifically Christian environment. This may be a pure
coincidence of course.