News

HOW WE STUDENTS SEE IT

Religion vs. Science…or not?!

Paolo Guardabasso
Liceo Scientifco “E. Boggio Lera”, Catania, Italy

I don’t believe in God and I think that science is better than

religion at answering questions of men. However, since the ap-
pearance of men on Earth, we have needed many answers in or-
der to explain what we first considered inexplicable and these an-
swers often came from religion. Nowadays there are still so many
religious scientists and vice versa. But there are also many church
men who disapprove of some aspects and some progress coming
from science. Little by little scientists have found the answers
RELIGION VS SCIENCE nearly for all Man’s questions, but some mysteries, like the origin
of the universe or the end of the world still remain unsolved. In
the past, some crimes were committed in the name of God. During the Crusades, for example, the Euro-
pean armies, screaming God wants it!, slaughtered entire communities of Arabs. A big problem is that the
power of the Church has grown over the centuries and this, as always happens in such cases, has brought
about many historical tragedies, like the oppression against the heretics or witch-hunting, that have nothing
in common with the doctrine of Jesus. At
the end of the 15th century, also thanks
to the invention of the press, in Europe a
new phenomenon started, called Human-
ism which is a broad category of active
ethical philosophies that affirm the dig-
nity and worth of all people, based on the
ability to determine right and wrong by
appealing to universal human qualities,
particularly rationalism. Humanism is
composed of a variety of more specific
philosophical systems, and is also incor-
porated into some religious schools of
EINSTEIN OR JESUS?
thought. This current was based also on

EPMagazine 14
 News

TIME’S COVER SCIENCE AND RELIGION

the acquaintance of the work of many ancient authors like Cicero, Virgil, Tacitus, Titus Livius, who were
witnesses of the humanitas in the classic age of the Roman Empire. Someone says that when science finds
the answers to all the questions about men, Religion will disappear. In my opinion, this can never happen
because God is not only a source of answers but also a sort of friend, brother and father for a large part of
people all over the world.
However I think the best thing that men should have in this period of wars, is something to believe in,
of any kind it might be.

Iconography
www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~jrmead/wired_science_religion.jpg
www.radicalcenter.net/images/pagemaster/vsjesuseinstein.jpg
www.csicop.org/si/2002-03/science-religion.jpg
http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1992/1101921228_400.jpg

Let us know
HOW YOU STUDENT SEE IT
epmagazine@virgilio.it

EPMagazine 15
 History of Science and Technology
N European Pupils Magazine
History of Nuclear Weapon
The first nuclear weapons were created in the United States, by an international team includ-
ing many displaced émigré scientists from central Europe with assistance from the United King-
dom and Canada, during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. While the
first weapons were developed primarily out of fear that Nazi Germany would develop them first,
they were eventually used against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August
1945. The Soviet Union developed and tested their first nuclear weapon in 1949, based partially
on information obtained from Soviet espionage in the United States. Both the U.S. and USSR
would go on to develop weapons powered by nuclear fusion (hydrogen bombs) by the mid-
1950s. With the invention of reliable rocketry during the 1960s, it became possible for nuclear
FAT-MAN
weapons to be delivered anywhere in the world on a very short notice, and the two Cold War
superpowers adopted a strategy of deterrence to maintain a shaky peace.

Nuclear weapons were symbols of military and national power, and nuclear testing was often
used both to test new designs as well as to send political messages. Other nations also developed nu-
clear weapons during this time, including the United Kingdom, France, and China. These five mem-
bers of the "nuclear club" agreed to attempt to limit the spread of nuclear proliferation to other na-
tions, though at least three other countries (India, South Africa, Pakistan, and most likely Israel)
developed nuclear arms during this time. At the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, the Russian
Federation inherited the weapons of the former USSR, and along with the U.S., pledged to reduce
their stockpile for increased international safety. Nuclear proliferation has continued, though, with
Pakistan testing their first weapons in 1998, and North Korea performing a test in 2006. In January
2005, Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed to selling nuclear
technology and information of nuclear weapons to Iran, Libya, and North Ko-
ASSEMBLY METHODS rea in a massive, international proliferation ring. On October 9, 2006, North
Korea claimed it had conducted an underground nuclear test, though the very
small apparent yield of the blast has led many to conclude that it was not fully successful (see 2006 North
Korean nuclear test). Nuclear weapons have been at the heart of many national and international political
disputes and have played a major part in popular culture since their dramatic public debut in the 1940s
and have usually symbolized the ultimate ability of mankind to utilize the strength of nature for destruc-
tion. There have been (at least) four major false alarms, the most recent in 1995, that almost resulted in the
U.S. or USSR/Russia launching its weapons in retaliation for a supposed attack. Additionally, during the ATOMIC
Cold War the U.S. and USSR came close to nuclear warfare several times, most notably during the Cu-
EXPLOSION
ban Missile Crisis. As of 2005, there are estimated to be at least 29,000 nuclear weapons held by at least
eight countries, 96 percent of them in the possession of the United States and Russia.

Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon

Iconography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nagasakibomb.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Fat_man.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Fission_bomb_assembly_methods.svg

Found for you by Giulio Scalia

Liceo Scientifico “E. Boggio Lera” Catania, Italy

EPMagazine 16