Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[learner12]

Hello, teachers!!

The reason that antiquity did not give birth to science was not only because fact tended to grow more and more unreal and unimportant. There was an even more cogent cause: the ancient world was a place of fear.
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I don't understand what the sentence wants to say. Because "the ancient world was a place of fear," people couldn't give birth to science? Why?

Thank you in advance.

[CP]

The writer is just saying that science was not discovered or used in antiquity / in the ancient past for at least two reasons: (1) fact grew more unreal and unimportant and (2) there was a lot of fear in those days.

From the construction of the quoted passage, I guess that the author has already discussed number 1, and he / she is now about to discuss number 2. Either that or he / she is introducing both ideas and will discuss them both next.

Sometimes the answer to the question is, "Read on!" The author should explain to you why the widespread fear of the ancient days prevented them from learning and using the scientific method. Maybe everyone was too busy fighting enemies or praying for help. Maybe they believed in so many gods, which they thought would protect them from the feared people and demons of the day, that there was no room for investigation of facts.
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[learner12]

Dear CP,

Thank you again for your great explanations!!

Have a nice day!!