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I'm a FReeper and I know something about history.
I know that islam carried on a lot of Greek/Hellenistic science without improving on it.
Until the Iranian muslim Al-Ghazzali (1058-1111) told his people to turn their back on science and philosophy. He instructed them to concentrate only on their religion.
Following his advice, the khalifah burnt the library of Baghdad in 1150.
At the same time, Saint Thomas (1225-74) told the West that science and Christianity were not in conflict.
He even argued that Aristotle was a kind of pre-Christian saint.
Science does shake belief in God and make people question religion. But not all religions choose to quake at the sight of it and turn their back on progress.
The greatest example of fine machinery up until modern times was the mechanical clock, which was invented by monks in monasteries.
The West has been shaped by Christian values and has led the world in technological achievements. It would be great if some other religions would quit holding their cultures hostage in a self-imposed Dark Age and quit blaming their troubles on the West.
Just for the record, the nose of the Sphinx was not destroyed by Napoleon's troops but by a muslim (or sufi if you prefer) around 1300 A.D. who thought it was idolaritous.
While all cultures have engaged in artistic vandalism, a religion that hates representational images of any kind, is likely to do more than their share.
Long live Charles Martel!

Long live Charles Martel!

Wow, that's a reference you don't hear that often. I've long considered Tours to be the most significant turning event in western culture. Most folks don't even know what it is. Just imagine what the world would be like without the hammer.

The greatest example of fine machinery up until modern times was the mechanical clock, which was invented by monks in monasteries.

Nope: by Ctesibios of Alexandria in about 618 AUC (135 BC). Pagan Greek, of course.

The "pendulum clock" as we know it today was invented by Christiaan Huygens in 1656. The clocks used by monks were typical Dark Age technology, which is to say inferior to their predecessors in Antiquity and their sucessors in modern times. The only significant improvement in a thousand years was the verge escapement, developed in the late fourteenth century, and almost certainly not by monks, since of the three English clock makers whose names have survived from that period, all were lay people.