" SCIENCE FRIGHTEN ONLY Those WHO do not KNOW it"
(From an interview with Nobel Laureate Rita Levi Montalcini)
For the first time, RIEForum dedicates an evening session to Science. Scientists, leading scholars and men of faith will discuss about the words by Nobel Laureate Rita Levi Montalcini, who recently said that “Science frightens only those people that do not know it”. A public debate on the following actual topics: why does Science frighten? How is people intimidated by it? What is the relationship between ethical values and faith? What does Research offer to our countries? What are the perspectives of advanced research? The scientists and discussants will be looking to find shared answers to these fundamental questions. By this meeting, the University of Padua wants to communicate a message of Hope, that can be offered by Scientific Research, considered as an crucial opportunity for human beings. The Altinate/San Gaetano Centre will host the debate. Silvio Garattini, Ilaria Capua, Roberto Timossi, Gilberto Corbellini and Paolo Bizzetti s.j. have been invited as guest speakers.
"Knowledge is by definition a good asset - perhaps its primary asset - because without it there can be no other freedoms. Scientists do not hold a monopoly on wisdom. The solution of the problems facing the whole human race is a shared goal for philosophers, men of religion, educators and members of other disciplines. The recent revival of the creationist movement, based on the concept of "intelligent design", denies the validity of Darwinian selection. This denial resulting from the ignorance of the last breakthroughs in genetics. Hypothesis and insights by geneticists are the results of studies carried out with the most advanced technologies. The genetic program of man does not have absolute power, but is subject to epigenetic changes in nature
In addition to the immense contribution that science and technology can now offer for better living conditions in all regions for the benefit of its inhabitants, must be considered what is the most important: the promotion of a friendship based on mutual exchange of knowledge and contacts. Only through this friendship we can overcome differences derived by hostility and ethnic intolerance. Science allows unambiguous and understandable language in the most diverse nations. (Rita Levi Montalcini)
Free participation
