Religion: Mr. G. in the U.S.S.R.

A brand-new magazine is on sale this week on Russia's newsstands. Title: Science and Religion. Editorial slant: religion ridiculed in village-atheist terms, scientists chided for any signs of backsliding from faithlessness. (One author accuses leftish U.S. Astronomer Harlow Shapley of attempting to reconcile God and the expanding universe, advises him: "Your hopes are vain, Professor Shapley!") The magazine's lead article is by Britain's spry old Philosopher-Mathematician Bertrand Russell, 87, who asks: "Has religion made a useful contribution to civilization?" His answer: No, except for helping to establish the calendar and inducing the "Egyptian priests to prepare such careful chronology of eclipses...