Science and War | Social Issue Essay, Article, Paragraph for Class 12, Graduation and Competitive Examination.

Science and War

Scheme of the essay

Exposition: There have been wars from the beginning of the world.

Rising Action: In the 20th century, weapons have become highly destructive.

Climax:

(1) The invention of nuclear weapons has made war highly destructive. Horrible pictures of the destruction which may be wrought, have been painted,

(2) Scientific wars have not done as much harm as the earlier wars had.

Falling Action: Science has been misused by the politicians.

Ending: War cannot be banished from the world but man must change to save the world.

Whether a man is warlike by nature or not is doubtful. Radha-Krishanan may say that war is the product of social maladjustments and particularly social tensions at the international level. But people like Hitler may think that war is the natural manifestation of the boldness of great nations. But wars have been there right from the beginning of the life on earth. The desire to dominate and the ambition to enslave others had been motive-force behind war. As these are the psychological weaknesses of man, so he has always been trying to make himself stronger than any other person. That is why science has been harnessed for waging war.

Science has made war more horrible and destructive. The invention of the nuclear weapons and bombs spell doom for the earthly people. It has generally been said that if there is a world war perhaps the whole of the living population of earth will come to an end. Once the great scientist Einstein was asked as to how the World War Third would be fought. He replied that “I don’t know about the Third World War, if Fourth World War is fought it will be with the help of stones. In other words, he meant to say that after the Third World War, the world will reel back to the primitive age. Different scientists have given different explanations for the complete destruction of earth after the nuclear war. Some say that the heat produced by Megaton and Cobalt bombs will be so much that it would be impossible for anything to live; everything will be reduced to dust. Some others say that the bursting of the nuclear devices will consume so much of oxygen that it will be impossible for the people to breathe. Still others say that the earth may crack and poisonous gases may start coming out of the earth. Many others think that the snow on the mountains would melt and the whole of the earth will be flooded. No denying the fact that in one or the other way the world will come to an end after a nuclear war.

Science has given the instruments of death that give much power to man. Germ warfare is equally dangerous. It will make the people to suffer from fatal diseases. Some of the poisonous gases are also made to pollute the atmosphere. Apart from these various other weapons are used for killing soldiers and even civilians of other nations.

Despite this fact it is believed that scientific wars of today have not taken so heavy a toll of the people as it used to take in the wars of the ancient times. They say that a number of the wounded soldiers are saved and the people do not die of diseases as they used to die during wars in ancient times. Plague and other serious diseases used to be the aftermath of those wars. Now-a-days medical facilities and other types of protections provided by science have made it possible for the human beings to save themselves from the scourge of war. Similarly scientific inventions like satellites, radars and many other electronic devices are employed to blunt the enemy attacks. So, if we take up an overall effect of science upon war it will not be so horrifying as it seems to be.

In fact, science has been misused by the politicians and not by the scientists who are genius and not evil spirits. They never want any destruction. Einstein, for example, was a great lover of peace and non-violence. It is the politicians who misused their research. Some may say that if scientists are not disposed to do harm why they should invent dangerous weapons.

Scientific activity is not something that can be directed in a definite direction. It is purely unguided and somewhat natural. In other words, science, it cannot be said has done harm to humanity by giving dangerous weapons. Till the human beings change their outlook it is not possible for them to banish war from the world.