英国新闻听力 火星上是否有生命存在（在线收听）

For many of us, “Life on Mars” brings to mind first of all the great TV detective series where Sam, played by John Simm travels back in time to work as a police officer with the retro, totally un-pc Detective Inspector Gene Hunt, energetically played by Philip Glenister. Or for David Bowie fans, the question he posed in 1973 still rings true; is there life on Mars?

Both the song, and the series that takes its name, are using Mars as a way of describing an utterly different reality, travelling either through time or space. In 1973, the first human footsteps on the moon were only 4 years old and landing on Mars was impossible.

And that men are from Mars was a way of expressing utter incomprehension of supposedly Venusian women.

But the discovery of water on Mars this week makes the planet perhaps less different than we thought………….water flows down the canyons and crater walls during the summer months on Mars, NASA told us this week. Their chief scientist put it succinctly for those of us who are not astronomers: “there is liquid water today on the surface of Mars”.

Christian religious imagery has long moved away from a pre-modern world view where angels lived in a mirror image of a human court “up there” and mortals lived “down here”. Ever since photographs have been sent back to us of our own blue planet, we have known that there is no such kingly court just out of reach above our heads.

But there are plenty of Scriptural descriptions of the universe; imaginative, beautiful language that has God asking Job “were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where is the dwelling of light and darkness?”. And the apocalyptic Book of Revelation talks of a “new heaven and a new earth”, and a “city that has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light”. In these startling images, it’s possible to find words that start to get close to describing God who for Christians is, in Christ, utterly other and overwhelmingly present not only in our world, which is small, but in all worlds for all time.

The discovery of life on Mars, if it happens, might provide a challenge to some understandings of God incarnate in human beings, but for me, I’m with CS Lewis who, as he often did, found a succinct way to express the totality of the vision of God. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it but because by it, I see”.

对我们许多人来说，“火星上的生命”让我们首先想到的就是电视上的侦探系列节目，约翰·西姆扮演的山姆搭乘减速火箭穿越到过去，成为一名警察，菲利普·格伦尼斯特激情演绎的警督Gene Hunt。或者大卫·鲍威1973年提出的至今仍然听上去真实可靠的问题：火星上有生命吗？

歌曲和同名电视系列节目都利用火星，穿越时间和空间来描述完全不同的现实。1973年，月球上人的足迹只有四年之久，登陆火星还是不可能的。

男人来自火星是为了表达女人来自金星的完全不理解。

但是本周火星上发现水使这个星球看上去或许与我们认为的没有太大不同。NASA本周告诉我们，夏季，火星上的水流下峡谷和火山口。他们的首席科学家简洁地告诉并非宇航员的我们：“火星表面存在液态水。”

基督教的宗教性兴象长期以来已经偏离前现代的世界观，认为天使生活在我们头上的人权法院的镜子图像里，而凡人生活在下面。自我们生活的蓝色星球的照片传回来之后，我们才知道头上并没有这样高贵的法庭存在。

但是圣经中有许多关于宇宙的描述，以充满想象力的优美语言描述，上帝问约伯：“当我奠定地球的基石时你是否在哪里？那时有光芒还是黑暗？”《超蝠同人启示录》说道“新的天堂和新的地球”，“城市不需要太阳和月亮来照耀，因为上帝的荣耀就是它的光芒。”在这些令人吃惊的形象中，我们可能找到一些文字开始接近描述上帝，对基督徒和其他所有人来说，上帝不仅仅存在于我们的世界，而是存在于所有世界，所有时光。

如果火星上发现生命，或许人们对上帝的理解会面临挑战，但是对我来说，我赞同CS Lewis的观点。他发现了一个简洁的方法来描述完整的上帝观。我相信基督教教义就像我相信太阳会升起一样。不仅仅因为我看到了它，而是因为通过它，我看到了很多。