All Things Considered

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Religious affairs programme, tackling thorny issues in a thought-provoking manner

Religious affairs programme, tackling the thornier issues of the day in a thought-provoking manner

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All Things Considered: Oppenheimer and the Bomb

Oppenheimer and the Bomb

BBC Radio Wales - All Things Considered, Oppenheimer and the Bomb

Rosa Hunt discusses the ethical and religious questions surrounding the atom bomb.

The recent biopic on J Robert Oppenheimer is the prompt for Rosa Hunt to discuss the ethical and religious questions arising from the development of the atom bomb.

It’s possibly never happened before, but this summer a renowned physicist is in major contention with a plastic doll. The big question for cinema-goers seems to be which of the two to see first: Barbie or Oppenheimer, the biopic about the ‘father of the Bomb’, and a man whose work on nuclear weapons would change the world. 

In today's edition of All Things Rosa Hunt discusses the work of physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, and his work in developing the atom bomb. For many of us, we thought the threat of nuclear conflict had almost disappeared, but the war in Ukraine reminds us that the genie unleashed by Oppenheimer in the desert at Los Alamos is still out of the bottle. 

To discuss some questions about the uses and abuses of science and technology Rosa is joined by a distinguished panel of guests. These include: physicist Professor Jon Butterworth. Jon splits his time between London and the CERN laboratories at Geneva. He worked on the discovery of the so-called ‘God particle’, the Higgs Boson, with an experiment that itself has changed our knowledge of the world, and which some feared would (rather like the atom bomb) destroy everything in it. Rev Professor Philip McCormack is principle of Spurgeon’s college. Philip is a former Baptist army chaplain who’s also a key figure in drafting the ethical framework under which the British Army operates. Awel Irene, is a seasoned peace campaigner, and secretary of Cymdeithas y Cymod or The Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales. Last but not least, Dr Iwan Russell-Jones is a lay reader in the Church in Wales, who’s seen the biopic Oppenheimer not just once, but twice!

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