I don't think that's on the whole part true. Sure, you can cite examples in certain fields (biology, or even more significantly, geology, which was completely strangled by the religious beliefs of its own practitioners) but for the most part scientific inquiry in pre-Industrial societies didn't happen because there were not that many institutions with the resources or desire to conduct it. Up until the Renaissance, there really was no benefactors to be had for scientific research (outside of alchemy) in Europe. I don't think that religious beliefs or institutions have been all that influential in stemming the spread of scientific knowledge. Have they hampered scientific literacy? Yes, and that should be criticized and remedied. However, I don't think the argument that religious beliefs held back technology or scientific progress to be, on the whole, all that convincing.