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-------NYLASH 翻譯
From the grave, Albert Einstein poured gasoline on the culture wars between science and religion this week.
從墳墓里， 愛因斯坦給科學和宗教之間的戰鬥加了一把油。
A letter the physicist wrote in 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, in which he described the Bible as 「pretty childish」 and scoffed at the notion that the Jews could be a 「chosen people,」 sold for $404,000 at an auction in London. That was 25 times the presale estimate.
一封由這位物理學家在1954年寫給哲學家Eric Gutkind的信這次在倫敦的拍賣會上以$404,000 的價格成交，25倍於原來的預測。在這封信裡面，愛因斯坦形容聖經是「非常幼稚的」而對於猶太人是「上帝的選民」這個說法表示可笑。
The Associated Press quoted Rupert Powell, the managing director of Bloomsbury Auctions, as describing the unidentified buyer as having 「a passion for theoretical physics and all that that entails.」 Among the unsuccessful bidders, according to The Guardian newspaper, was Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, an outspoken atheist.
美聯社援引Rupert Powell，Bloomsbury 拍賣行董事總經理的話。 買家對於理論物理有非常大興趣。在那些失敗的競標者中包括了牛津大學進化生物學家Richard Dawkins，一位知名的無神論者。
The price makes the Gutkind letter one of the best sellers among Einstein manuscripts. That $404,000 is only a little less than the $442,500 paid for the entire collection of 53 love letters between Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Maric, at an auction at Christie』s in New York in 1996. At that same auction a paper by Einstein and his best friend, Michele Besso, attempting a calculation that would later be a pivotal piece of his crowning achievement, the General Theory of Relativity, went for $398,500.
這個價碼使得Gutkind 的信成為所有愛因斯坦手稿裡面賣得最好的一封。 $404,000 只有比之前拍賣的53封情書略低一點。這些情書以$442,500 於1996年在紐約Christie』s 成交。 是愛因斯坦與他第一位太太Mileva Maric 之間的。就是在那個拍賣會上面，愛因斯坦和他最好的朋友Michele Besso 的一篇論文被$398,500成交。就是在這一篇論文裡面，他邁出了相對論第一步：嘗試一種新的計算研究，之後成為這個理論關鍵的一部分。
Diana L. Kormos-Buchwald, a historian at the California Institute of Technology and head of the Einstein Papers project, said she was not surprised that the Gutkind letter, which was known to Einstein scholars, fetched such a high price.
加州理工的一位歷史學家，Diana L. Kormos-Buchwald 是愛因斯坦論文項目的領頭人。她說她對於這封給與Gutkind 的信能賣出這個好價錢並不表示驚訝。這封信在研究愛因斯坦的學者中是廣為知曉的。
「It is an important expression of Einstein』s thoughts and views on religion, on Judaism, on his views about God and religious texts,」 she wrote in an e-mail message. She said the letter, which was not written for publication, was 「concise and unvarnished」 and more straightforward than the metaphors he usually turned to in public.
她在一封email裡面說「這是一封很重要的信，表達了愛因斯坦對於宗教，猶太教，上帝與宗教論述上面的看法和思考。這封信不是寫給大眾讀者的，比之於其他的公開信更加簡單，直接，沒有過多的修飾。 」
Gerald Holton, a historian of science at Harvard and a longtime Einstein expert, also was not surprised. He said Einstein』s marketability had been improved by the last few years of hoopla about the 100th anniversary of relativity, which included his selection as Time magazine』s Man of the Century in 2000, and several new biographies. Dr. Holton described the letter as 「a feat of eloquent Credo in short form.」
Gerald Holton，一位在哈佛的愛因斯坦專家，也表示並不驚訝。他說愛因斯坦的市場價值隨著相對論100周年的紀念日到來在這幾年持續升溫。他被時代雜誌評選為20世紀之星， 另外好幾本有關他的傳記也在最近發表。Holton 形容這封信是一首簡短的但富有征服力的說明。
Einstein, as he says in his autobiographical notes, lost his religion at the age of 12, concluding that it was all a lie, and he never looked back. But he never lost his religious feeling about the apparent order of the universe or his intuitive connection with its mystery, which he savored. 「The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is its comprehensibility,」 he once said.
愛因斯坦，就象他在自己的自傳裡面所說的，在12歲的時候便失去了對於宗教的信仰。他認為那些都是些謊話，而且他從那以後再也沒有反思過這個問題。但是他從來沒有失去過對於宗教的感覺，那種似乎顯而易見的宇宙次序，以及那種和宇宙奧秘的直覺聯繫。他曾經說過「 最讓人不可以理解的事情， 是宇宙居然是可以理解的。
「If something is in me that can be called religious,」 he wrote in another letter, in 1954, 「then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as science can reveal it.」
「如果在我身上有什麼可以稱為宗教崇拜」他1954年有一次在另外一封信裡面寫到「就是那種對於奇妙世界結構無邊無際的熱愛， 而這是被科學所揭示出來的 」
Einstein consistently characterized the idea of a personal God who answers prayers as naive, and life after death as wishful thinking. But his continual references to God — as a metaphor for physical law; in his famous rebuke to quantum mechanics, 「God doesn』t play dice」; and in lines like the endlessly repeated, 「 Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind」 — has led some wishful thinkers to try to put him in the camp of some kind of believer or even, not long ago, to paint him as an advocate of intelligent design.
愛因斯坦一直以為，如果說有一位有人格的神能回答你的祈禱， 那麼這種想法是非常幼稚的。同樣，企望死後有來生也是一種一廂情願的想法。但是他一直來對於上帝的引用卻給一些人用來作為一種證據， 證明他是屬於相信智能設計的一類人。 愛因斯坦曾經在他著名的對於量子力學論證中說過「上帝不是在拋篩子」 他同時也不止一次說過「科學缺了宗教就變得僵硬，瘸拐了， 而宗教缺少了科學便成了瞎子。」
Trying to distinguish between a personal God and a more cosmic force, Einstein described himself as an 「agnostic」 and 「not an atheist,」 which he associated with the same intolerance as religious fanatics. 「They are creatures who — in their grudge against the traditional 『opium for the people』 — cannot bear the music of the spheres.」
為了區別一個有人格的上帝和一個有無窮力量的勢力，愛因斯坦稱呼自己是一個「無論知者」而不是一個「無神論者」。「無神論者」在愛因斯坦看來就和那些宗教痴迷者類似。「他們難於理解人類的傳統精神鴉片， 就象他們也不能去領會音樂的奇妙。」
The problem of God, he said, 「is too vast for our limited minds.」
有一次他說「關於神靈的問題在於，他的無邊無際，相對於我們有限的人腦來說太難接受了」
Einstein』s latest words offer scant comfort to the traditionally faithful.
愛因斯坦最後的話語多少給傳統信仰帶來一點安慰。
In the letter, according to the A.P. account, he wrote that 「the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.」
根據A. P. 的論述，愛因斯坦在這封信里寫到「上帝這個詞對於我來說代表了人類軟弱的一面。聖經採集了一系列值得敬畏的神話，但是都太幼稚了。」
As for his fellow Jews, he said that Judaism, like all other religions, was 「an incarnation of the most childish superstitions.」
對其他猶太人， 他說到， 「猶太教，就象其他的宗教一樣，是一種典型的迷信」
He claimed a deep affinity with the Jewish people, he said, but 「as far as my experience goes they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 『chosen』 about them.」
他表達了自己對於猶太民族的親愛，親和。他說到「但是從我的經歷來看， 猶太人並沒有比其他任何民族更加優秀，他們收到最壞的一種癌症的保護，那就是缺少威力。 否則我看不出他們有什麼是天生被註定的。
[ 本帖最後由 NYLASH 於 2008-5-19 09:09 編輯 ] |
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