Answer to Question #274515 in Microbiology for Shreya

Question

why was the belief in spontaneous generation consider as an obstacle to the development of microbiology as a scientific discipline

Answer 1

The belief in spontaneous generation made the scientists of the time to declare existence of microbes from non living matter a matter of chance and therefore they disregarded any research on the mechanisms of transmission or reproduction.

This thought was unscientific (almost like magic) and therefore they could not subject it to empirical inquiry. The theory caused a great conflict among scientists and thus could not agree to further study about microbe