In pursuit of answers 寻求答案 [中国汉传密学研究院翻译局 转译]

In pursuit of answers

寻求答案 
 

中国汉传密学研究院翻译局转译　自墨尔砵《时代日报‧世界宗教国会之诸信仰之会面特刊》第11页 　　 
 

Can religion and science co-exist in harmony? Senior writer Sushi Das reports on what is often a tempestuous debate, hearing from the religious and scientific camps.

宗教和科学能够和谐共存吗？资深作家 Sushi Das［女士］报告了来自宗教和科学营的聆讯，一场暴风雨的辩论。  

“We need to move beyond these primitive notions of the magician in the sky … is there some sort of god? Isn’t there some sort of god? I think it’s just missing the point.” Scientist, Dr Paul Davies

“我们需要前进越过天空中魔师的原始概念……那里有些上帝？那里是没有一些上帝？我想，就仅仅是找不到重点。”科学家 Paul Davies 博士说。  

NOT too hot, not too cold. Conditions on earth are just right for life to flourish. Incredibly, the natural laws are so finely calibrated, even the slightest change to, say, gravity or electromagnetism, would render the universe sterile.

不是很热，不是很冷。在地球上的气候是刚合适给予生命生长茂盛。自然规律是那么细微地校准，就是说，地心吸力或电磁学中，算是最细小的改变，都会令到宇宙无箘。  

But how is it that the earth is so exquisitely poised to support life? How has the world come to be, like baby bear’s porridge, just right? For physicist, cosmologist and big thinker Paul Davies, this is the Goldilocks enigma.

但地球究竟是如何那么精致地、平衡地支持着生命？世界是如何来的，就像［著名童话故事中的］小熊宝宝的粥，调到刚刚好？对物理学家、宇宙论者和大思想家 Paul Davies 先生，这就是《 Goldilocks 之谜》【注一】。  

For centuries, people have turned to religion and philosophy to understand the meaning of life, to ask why we are here and what is our destiny. Today, for many answers, they also turn to science. And the more science unveils about the workings of nature in the universe, the more ingenious, awesome and meaningful it seems, says Dr Davies.

世纪以来，人们转向教和哲学来理解生命的意义，问我们为甚么在这里和我们的命运是甚么。今天，许多答案，都转向科学。而越多科学把宇宙中自然界的运作揭幕时，宇宙看来便更巧妙、令人敬畏和有意义，Davies 博士说。  

That’s because, as scientific investigation shows, the world is ordered, rational and coherent, not just a haphazard jumble of events and phenomena. “It all hangs together beautifully,” says Dr Davies. And theists agree.

这是因为，如科学调查显示，世界是有秩序、有理性和协调的，不祗是一个随意的、混乱的活动现象。“［宇宙］她全部是那么美丽地挂起来”是科学家 Paul Davies 博士说。而有神论者同意。  

Indeed, it is so perfectly balanced that to some scientists, including Dr Davies, it’s all beginning to look like a fixed-up job. But not fixed up by a pre-existing super-being who designed it all, he stresses. Here, some theists disagree.

确确实实地，她是那么完美地平衡著，而对一些科学家，包括Paul Davies 博士，开始看来是一项安排好的工作。他强调，但不是由一位预先存在的、设计万物的超级生命来安排。这点，有些有神论不同意。  

“We need to move beyond these primitive notions of the magician in the sky,” he tells The Age. “It’s just a tired old argument: is there some sort of god? Isn’t there some sort of god? I think it’s just missing the point.

“我们需要前进越过天空中魔师的原始概念，”他告诉《时代》，“这仅仅是一个令人厌倦的论：那里有些上帝？那里是没有一些上帝？我想，就仅仅是找不到重点。”  

“We live in a universe which is stunningly ingenious and there is this subtle and coherent scheme of things and we should be looking to that, not how did it come to exist in the big bang or who made the big bang, or is there a designer who sat down and figured it all out and then made it. I think all that sort of stuff is just childish.”

“我们住在一个极好地巧妙的宇宙里，但其中［指宇宙］有这微妙和协调的计划，而我们应该看看，不是她如何在大爆炸中生存或是甚么人作出这大爆炸，或是否有一个设计师坐下来，把所有都想清楚，然后做出来。我想，那类东西都仅仅是幼稚。”  

After spending 16 years living in Australia, British-born Dr Davies moved to ArizonaStateUniversity in 2006. Eleven years earlier he was awarded the Templeton Prize, the world’s richest prize for intellectual endeavour, for his work on the deeper significance of science.

英国出生的 Paul Davies 博士在澳洲生活了十六年，然后2006年搬去［美国西南部的］亚利桑那州的州立大学。11年前就对他在科学的工作有深刻的意义，而颁发他Templeton 奖，此乃世界上给予智能努力的最昂贵的奖品，  

In that year, the prize was described as being for “a living individual who has shown extraordinary originality in helping to advance the world’s understanding of God and/or spirituality”.

该年，奖状被描述是“一位活着的人显示出非凡的创造力来帮助推动世界对上帝和或灵性的理解。”  

Dr Davies would like us to move on from thinking of God as a “cosmic magician” because he believes that using that kind of “10th-century view” keeps us locked in an immature debate.

Paul Davies 博士希望我们离开上帝是一个“宇宙的魔术师”的思想而前进，因为他相信，使用这类“十年代的观点”将我们锁住在不成熟的辩论中。  

Interesting words from a man who calls himself a “wishy-washy Anglican”. He hastily adds: “As a colleague of mine said, ‘the Anglican Church is the one religious institution in which an atheist can feel comfortable’.”

有趣的字眼出之这个自称为“空洞无聊的圣公会教徒”。他仓促地补充：“如我的一个同事说：‘圣公会教堂是唯一一个无神论者感到舒服的机构’。”  

Anglican? Atheist? Exactly where does Paul Davies stand? “I’m a scientist looking for deep answers to big questions,” he says.

圣公会？无神论者？Paul Davies 究竟的立场是甚么？“我是一个对大问题寻找深刻答案的科学家”，他说。  

He finds it depressing when people cling to a faith believing it provides all the answers they need to know. Science, he says, can help unravel some of the mystery of the universe, but we must also admit we don’t have all the answers yet.

对人们执著和信任一个信仰能提供所有答案，他感到沮丧。科学，他说，能够帮助把宇宙的秘密揭幕，但我们必须承认我们仍没有全部的答案。  

Perhaps former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s famous words from 2002 are oddly appropriate here: “As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

或许前美国国防秘书长 Donald Rumsfels 在2002年的名言在这里是奇异地合适：“如我们所知，有些已知的已知物；有些东西我们是知道我们知道的。我们也知道，有些已知的未知物；就是说，我们知道有些东西我们是不知道的。但是也有一些是未知的未知物──有些我们是不知道我们不知道的。”  

Even without a complete scientific explanation of the world, believers in God have generally accepted Darwin’s theory of evolution — a theory that starkly contradicts the literal Christian Biblical story that God created the world in six days.

就算是对世界没有一个完整的科学解释，上帝信徒普遍都接受［英国生物学家］达尔文的进化论科学家──严酷地否定基督教的圣经故事说上帝在六天里创造了世界的原义的一种理论。  

Victoria’s churchgoing Governor, David de Krester, is among them. Asked this month whether his scientific career as an infertility expert put him at odds with his Christian belief, he said he accepted that evolutionary theory represented “the most logical explanation for the origin of mankind”.

维多利亚的、经常上教堂的总督 David de Krester 是其中之一。这个月问他，作为一个专治不生育的专家，他的科学事业与他的基督教信仰，是否把他放在一个不一致的立场，他说他接受进化论代表着“对人类的起源的一个最合逻辑的解释。”  

“Those of us of the Christian faith would believe in a god creator who was the engineer. For me, this engineer did not complete the job in a week as expressed in the book of Genesis, but more over an evolutionary time span,” he said.

“我们那些基督教信仰的人相信上帝创造者是一位工程师。对我来说，这工程师没有如《创世纪》中表达在一周内完成工作［创造了这世界］，但更像是经过一个进化时间段来完成。”  

So, does religion conveniently co-opt scientific discoveries as all part of God’s plan?

那么，宗教可以方便地吸收所有科学的发现为上帝的计划的一部份吗？  

Tom Frame, director of St Mark’s National Theological Centre at CharlesSturtUniversity and former Bishop to the Australian Defence Force, says science and religion can walk together comfortably.

［澳洲雪梨的］Charles Sturt 大学的圣马克的全国神学中心的理事和澳洲国防部的前主教Tom Frame说科学和宗教能够舒适地走在一起。  

“It may appear … that religion gives up nothing until science gives it nowhere to go,” he says. But he maintains the relationship is mutually beneficial.

“可能看来……宗教没有放弃甚么，直至科学没有路可走时，”他说。但他坚持这关系是相互得益的。  

Science tells religion when there are matters on which it is “not competent to comment”, and conversely, those of a religious disposition prevent scientists claiming more than their research and findings entitle them to, he says.

科学告诟诉宗教有些事情是“不怎样有能力去评论，”但相反地，那些宗教性情的人，阻止科学家去声称一些比他们［科学家］从研究和发现而获得权力［去声称］的东西，他说。  

Both Dr Davies and Professor Frame agree that for most moderate believers science and religion co-exist happily. It is only at the extreme ends of science and religion that the debate becomes shrill. The ferocious debate between fundamentalist evolutionary theorists and those who believe in creationism and intelligent design is a case in point.

Davies 博士和Frame教授两者都同意，对最稳健的信仰者来说，科学和宗教是快乐地共存。只是在科学和宗教的极端时，辩论才会变成尖刻。基要主义者、进化理论家和那些特别创造说和智慧设计的人之间的凶猛辩是很好的例子。  

Unfortunately, says Dr Davies, the September 11 attacks polarised some people further, providing those opposed to religion the opportunity to condemn all religion as dangerous and evil. It set back the case for a more mature debate, he says.

不幸，Davies 博士说，9月11日攻击进一步极化了某些人，提供给那些反对宗教的人去谴责所有宗教都是危险和魔鬼的一个机会。他说，令到一个更成熟的辩论的例子受挫。  

In the overlap between science and religion it is necessary to “move the debate to a higher plane, away from the childish slanging match that afflicts this whole subject”, says Dr Davies.

在科学和宗教的重叠部份中，有需要“将辩论转移至一个更高的平面，离开那些折磨整个主题的幼稚的谩骂战，” Davies 博士说。  

Yes, the universe looks like a fixed-up job, but we will never explain the cosmos by simply taking on faith, either divinity or physical laws, he says. True meaning can only be found from within the universe.

是的，宇宙看来是一个被安排的工作，但我们将永不能用简单的信仰、或神圣性或物质规律来解释宇宙，他说。真正的意义只能在宇宙之内找到。  

What he means is the ability of humans to discern and understand the universe is a fundamental part of what makes the universe tick. In other words, humans, unlike animals, have the capacity to understand the world through science, to decode nature to discover what goes on inside an atom or a black hole.

他的意思是，人类去分辨和理解宇宙的能力正是令到宇宙运作的基本部份。换句话说，人类，不像动物，有能力通过科学去理解世界，解码自然，发现在一个原子里、或黑洞里有甚么。  

And the fact that we can do that, even though it is completely surplus to Darwinian survival requirements, is a matter of “stunning significance”.

而我们能够这样做的事实，就算是完全超出达尔文的进化论的幸存要求，都已经是一件“令人震惊的重要性”事件。  

“What I’m trying to do,” he says, “is change the questions people ask.”

“我尝试做的，”他说“是改变人们问的问题。”  

The best approach, according to Dr Davies, would be to “find a complete and enclosed explanation for existence from within the universe and not appeal to any transcendent entities, not any cosmic magician”.

最好的途径，根据Davies 博士，会是“对宇宙中的存在物寻找一个完整而包括性的解释，但又不求助于任何超越界的个体，任何宇宙的魔术师。”  

“The essence of being a scientist is you don’t say ‘I’ve got all the answers, that’s it, end of story..’ I keep changing my mind about things. I find as science marches on, it illuminates different areas of human inquiry, and the last thing I would want is to already have made up my mind in advance about what the truth is, and then try to shoehorn the facts to fit. I’m still searching, as I was when I was a school child.”

“作为一个科学家的本质是你不会说‘我已经有所有的答案，这就是了，故事的尾声。’我不停对事情改变我的主意。我发觉，当科学向前迈进时，他照亮了人类查的不同方面，我最不想做的是，我已经对真理是甚么预早决定我的想法，然后强把事实窒进去。我仍然在寻找，就如我以前学童时一样。”  

For Dr Davies, the heart of finding an overarching explanation of existence involves finding the answer to the Goldilocks enigma — why is it that the universe is just right for life?

对Davies 博士来说，对存在寻找一个包罗万象的解释的心，包括对《Goldilocks 之谜》寻找答案一样──宇宙为甚么对生命是那样的合适？  

It’s a question that science and religion ponder in equal measure.

这是科学和宗教同样尺度在考量的问题。  

【注一】《Goldilocks 之谜》是Paul Davies 博士的一本关于“为甚么宇宙对生命是刚刚合适？”著作。