2023年经济学人 科学与宗教不一定对立(1)

 

    Culture

    文艺版块

    Book review

    书评

    Leaps of faith

    信仰之跃

    Science and religion need not be antagonistic¹, says an arresting history.

    一部引人入胜的历史著作表示，科学和宗教不一定是对立的。

    Magisteria. By Nicholas Spencer.

    《权威》，尼古拉斯·斯宾塞著。

    In the late 19th century two books on science and religion were published within a decade of each other.

    19世纪末，两本关于科学和宗教的书在十年内相继出版。

    In "The Creed² of Science" William Graham tried to reconcile new scientific ideas with faith.

    在《科学信条》一书中，威廉·格雷厄姆试图调和新的科学思想与信仰之间的关系。

    In 1881 Charles Darwin, by then an agnostic, told him:

    1881年，当时还是不可知论者的查尔斯·达尔文对他说：

    "You have expressed my inward conviction, though far more vividly³ and clearly than I could have done, that the Universe is not the result of chance.""你表达了我内心坚信的看法，但比我讲述的更生动、更清晰，即宇宙不是偶然的结果。"The other book made a much bigger splash.

    另一本书引起了更大的轰动。

    "History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science" by John William Draper was one of the first post-Darwinian tomes to advance the view that--as its title suggests--science and religion are strongly antithetical.

    约翰·威廉·德雷珀的《宗教与科学的冲突史》是首先提出科学与宗教强烈对立这一观点（如其标题所示）的后达尔文巨著之一。

    Promoted hard by its publisher, the book went through 50 printings in America and 24 in Britain and was translated into at least ten languages.

    在出版商的大力宣传下，这本书在美国和英国分别经历了50和24次印刷，并被翻译成至少10种语言。

    Draper's bestseller told a story of antagonism⁴ that, ever since, has been the mainstream⁵ way to see this relationship.

    德雷珀的畅销书讲述的是对抗，此后对抗就成了看待科学与宗教的关系的主流方式。

    In "Magisteria", his illuminating⁶ new book, Nicholas Spencer claims that this framing, more recently espoused⁷ by Richard Dawkins and others, is misleading.

    在尼古拉斯·斯宾塞富有启发性的新书《权威》中，斯宾塞声称，这种看待方式具有误导性，更近期的理查德·道金斯和其他人也支持这种方式。

    For centuries, he says, science and religion have been "endlessly and fascinatingly entangled⁸".

    他说，几个世纪以来，科学和宗教一直"无休止地、饶有趣味地纠缠在一起"。

    Even (or especially) those readers inclined to disagree with him will find his narrative⁹ refreshing¹⁰.

    即使(或特别是)那些倾向于不同意他的读者也会发现他的叙述令人耳目一新。

    Mr Spencer works at Theos, a religious think-tank in London, and is one of Britain's most astute¹¹ observers of religious affairs.

    斯宾塞在伦敦的宗教智库Theos工作，他是英国最敏锐的宗教事务观察者之一。

    Some conflict between science and religion is understandable, he argues, but not inevitable¹².

    他认为，科学和宗教之间的一些冲突是可以理解的，但不是不可避免的。

    He offers an engaging tour of the intersection¹³ of religious and scientific history:

    他带读者进行了一次引人入胜的旅程，展现了宗教史和科学史的交集：

    from ancient science in which "the divine was everywhere", to the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in the ninth century and Maimonides, an illustrious Jewish thinker of the 12th--and onwards, eventually, to artificial intelligence.

    从"神圣无处不在"的古代科学，到9世纪巴格达的阿拔斯哈里发，以及12世纪杰出的犹太思想家迈蒙尼德--再到最终的人工智能。

    Now and again he launches salvoes against ideologues on both sides.

    他时常向双方的理论家发起炮轰。

    "Medieval science" is not an oxymoron, he writes. Nor is religious rationalism.

    他写道，"中世纪科学"并不是矛盾修辞法，宗教理性主义也不是。

    In the 11th century Berengar of Tours held that "it is by his reason that man resembles God."在11世纪，图尔的贝伦加尔认为："正是因为有理性，人才像上帝。"As religious dissent¹⁴ spread following the Reformation, Mr Spencer says, theology helped incubate modern science through the propagation of doubt about institutions and the cracking open of orthodoxies.

    斯宾塞说，随着宗教异见在宗教改革后蔓延，神学通过传播对制度的怀疑和打破正统观念，从而帮助孵化了现代科学。

    For their part, an emergent tribe of naturalists¹⁵ strove, chisel¹⁶ and hammer in hand, to show that creation pointed¹⁷ towards a creator.

    对于他们来说，新兴的博物学家群体手持凿子和锤子，奋力证明造物指向的是造物主。

    Exploration of nature was itself a form of worship.

    探索自然本身就是崇拜的一种形式。

1 antagonistic   

adj.敌对的

参考例句：

• He is always antagonistic towards new ideas.他对新思想总是持反对态度。
• They merely stirred in a nervous and wholly antagonistic way.他们只是神经质地，带着完全敌对情绪地骚动了一下。

2 creed   

n.信条；信念，纲领

参考例句：

• They offended against every article of his creed.他们触犯了他的每一条戒律。
• Our creed has always been that business is business.我们的信条一直是公私分明。

3 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

4 antagonism   

n.对抗，敌对，对立

参考例句：

• People did not feel a strong antagonism for established policy.人们没有对既定方针产生强烈反应。
• There is still much antagonism between trades unions and the oil companies.工会和石油公司之间仍然存在着相当大的敌意。

5 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

6 illuminating   

a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的

参考例句：

• We didn't find the examples he used particularly illuminating. 我们觉得他采用的那些例证启发性不是特别大。
• I found his talk most illuminating. 我觉得他的话很有启发性。

7 espoused   

v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They espoused the notion of equal opportunity for all in education. 他们赞同在教育方面人人机会均等的观念。
• The ideas she espoused were incomprehensible to me. 她所支持的意见令我难以理解。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 entangled   

adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The bird had become entangled in the wire netting. 那只小鸟被铁丝网缠住了。
• Some military observers fear the US could get entangled in another war. 一些军事观察家担心美国会卷入另一场战争。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

10 refreshing   

adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的

参考例句：

• I find it'so refreshing to work with young people in this department.我发现和这一部门的青年一起工作令人精神振奋。
• The water was cold and wonderfully refreshing.水很涼，特别解乏提神。

11 astute   

adj.机敏的，精明的

参考例句：

• A good leader must be an astute judge of ability.一个优秀的领导人必须善于识别人的能力。
• The criminal was very astute and well matched the detective in intelligence.这个罪犯非常狡猾，足以对付侦探的机智。

12 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

13 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

14 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

15 naturalists   

n.博物学家( naturalist的名词复数 )；（文学艺术的）自然主义者

参考例句：

• Naturalists differ much in determining what characters are of generic value. 自然学者对于不同性状决定生物的属的含义上，各有各的见解。 来自辞典例句
• This fact has led naturalists to believe that the Isthmus was formerly open. 使许多自然学者相信这个地蛱在以前原是开通的。 来自辞典例句

16 chisel   

n.凿子；v.用凿子刻，雕，凿

参考例句：

• This chisel is useful for getting into awkward spaces.这凿子在要伸入到犄角儿里时十分有用。
• Camille used a hammer and chisel to carve out a figure from the marble.卡米尔用锤子和凿子将大理石雕刻出一个人像。

17 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。