2023年经济学人 科学与宗教不一定对立(2)(在线收听

 

    Mr Spencer insightfully revisits the dust-ups involving Galileo, Darwin and John Scopes (prosecuted in Tennessee in 1925 for teaching evolution).

    斯宾塞富有洞见地回顾了涉及伽利略、达尔文和约翰·斯科普斯(1925年因教授进化论而在田纳西州被起诉)的争吵。

    He traces the interaction of the two disciplines in often fascinating detail.

    他常常以引人入胜的详细方式追溯这两个学科之间的互动。

    Many pioneering scientists lived in times of religious and political strife and found in "natural philosophy", as pre-modern science was known, a "ministry of reconciliation".

    许多开拓性科学家生活在充满宗教和政治冲突的时代,并在"自然哲学"中找到了"调和之道",自然哲学即所谓的前现代科学。

    Thomas Sprat, dean of Westminster and biographer of the Royal Society, opined in 1667 that, in their experiments, men "may agree, or dissent, without faction, or fierceness".

    1667年,威斯敏斯特的主任牧师、英国皇家学会的传记作家托马斯·斯普拉特认为,在实验中,人们"可以同意,也可以反对,而且没有派系,也不会变得激烈"。

    That was not always true, as Isaac Newton's spats with his peers showed.

    情况并非总是如此,正如艾萨克·牛顿与其同代人的争吵所示。

    Still, says Mr Spencer, by supplying an arena for calmer debate that was beyond clerical control, "Science saved religion from itself."斯宾塞先生说,尽管如此,在神职人员控制的范围之外,为更冷静的辩论提供一个舞台,这让"科学将宗教从其自身的压迫中拯救出来"。

    The roll call of scientists who were people of faith runs from Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell to Gregor Mendel and Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian priest who, on the basis of mathematical calculations, first proposed that the universe was expanding and therefore had a beginning.

    有宗教信仰的科学家的名单包括迈克尔·法拉第、詹姆斯·克莱克·麦克斯韦、格雷戈尔·孟德尔、乔治·勒梅特,勒梅特是比利时神父,他在数学计算的基础上首次提出宇宙正在膨胀,因此宇宙有起源。

    In 1933 Lemaitre made what, for Mr Spencer, is a key observation: "Neither St Paul nor Moses had the slightest idea of relativity."1933年,勒梅特提出了斯宾塞认为很关键的一个观点:"圣保罗和摩西都没有一丁点相对论的概念。"The writers of the Bible could see into "the question of salvation. On other questions they were as wise or as ignorant as their generation."《圣经》的作者可以洞察"救赎问题。在其他问题上,他们和其同时代的人一样聪明或无知"。

    In other words, science and religion are not different attempts to do the same thing.

    换言之,科学和宗教并不是做同一件事情的不同尝试。

    Lemaitre warned the pope against drawing any theological conclusions from his work on the cosmos.

    勒梅特警告教皇,不要从他对宇宙的研究中得出任何神学结论。

    Mutual hostility has risen in recent decades.

    近几十年来,双方的敌意有所上升。

    Sociobiology now seeks to explain all human life and behaviour, including morality and the mind, in terms of evolution.

    社会生物学现在试图从进化论的角度解释所有的人类生活和行为,包括道德和思维。

    As well as clinging to a morality derived from scripture, some religious zealots still reject Darwin's theory altogether.

    除了坚持源自宗教经典的道德之外,一些宗教狂热分子仍然全盘否认达尔文的理论。

    Mr Spencer thinks it is "disciplinary overreach" for either side to dismiss the other entirely.

    斯宾塞认为,任何一方对另一方完全不屑一顾,都是"学科越界"。

    "Neuroscience stands no more chance of finding morality or the soul in an MRI scan than ethicists or theologians will locate evidence for frontal lobe activity in the ‘Nicomachean Ethics' or the Bible.""神经科学在核磁共振扫描中找不到道德或灵魂,正如伦理学家或神学家在《尼各马可伦理学》或《圣经》中无法找到额叶活动的证据一样。"In "Rocks of Ages" (published in 1999), Stephen Jay Gould, an evolutionary biologist, argued that the tension between science and religion "exists only in people's minds…not in the logic or proper utility of these entirely different [subjects]".

    在《时代的岩石》(1999年出版)一书中,进化生物学家斯蒂芬·杰伊·古尔德认为,科学和宗教之间的紧张关系"只存在于人们的头脑中......而非存在于逻辑或对这两个截然不同的学科的合理运用之中"。

    He coined the phrase "non-overlapping magisteria" to describe their relationship.

    他创造了"非重叠权威"一词来描述这种关系。

    One covers the empirical realm, the other the realm of values.

    一个负责经验领域,另一个负责价值领域。

    Mr Spencer does not think the division is quite so clean-cut.

    斯宾塞并不认为这种划分是如此清晰的。

    "Science and religion are partially overlapping magisteria," he thinks. "They overlap within us.""科学和宗教是部分重叠的权威。"他认为。"二者在我们内心中是重叠的。"In other words, humans are complex, and should be able to tolerate complexity without declaring war.

    换言之,人类是复杂的,应该能够在不宣战的情况下容忍复杂性。

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/jjxrhj/2023jjxr/565750.html