Philip Ball on the Origins of Curiosity | FiveBooks | The Browser

http://thebrowser.com/interviews/philip-ball-on-origins-curiosity

The case I argue is that science in the modern sense only really took
off when that hierarchy started to be eroded – when it became
acceptable to ask any question about anything. That really began to
happen towards the end of the 16th century and particularly in the
17th century. Curiosity also had theological connotations. Most
obviously in the Christian tradition, curiosity was problematic and
impious, trying to pry into God's creation. If something was hidden, a
lot of medieval theologians thought, then it was something that God
intended us not to know about.
---SPSmith