PBS高端访谈:科学家探寻精神世界

AMNA NAWAZ: One conflict in the ongoing¹ culture wars seems to suggest that science and religion cannot coexist peacefully.

Alan Lightman is a distinguished² physicist³ and a novelist who teaches at MIT.

Tonight, he shares his Humble⁴ Opinion on how to make space for both facts and spirituality.

ALAN LIGHTMAN, Physicist: I have worked as a physicist for many years.

And I have always held a purely⁵ scientific view of the world.

And by that, I mean that the universe is made of matter and nothing more, that the universe is governed by a small number of laws, and that everything in the world eventually disintegrates⁶ and passes away.

And then, one summer night, I was out in the ocean in a small boat.

It was a dark, clear night, and the sky vibrated with stars.

I laid down in the boat and looked up.

After a few minutes, I found myself falling into infinity⁷.

I lost all track of myself, and the vast expanse of time extending from the far distant past to the far distant future seemed compressed to a dot.

I felt connected to something eternal and ethereal, something beyond the material world.

In recent years, some scientists have attempted to use scientific arguments to question the existence of God.

I think these people are missing the point.

God, as conceived by most religions, lies outside time and space.

You can't use scientific arguments to either disprove or prove God.

And for the same reason, you can't use scientific arguments to analyze⁸ or understand the feeling I had that summer night when I lay down in the boat and looked up and felt part of something far larger than myself.

I'm still a scientist.

I still believe that the world is made of atoms and molecules⁹ and nothing more.

But I also believe in the power and validity of the spiritual experience.

Is it possible to be committed to both without feeling a contradiction?

I think so.

We understand that everything in the physical world is material, fated to pass away.

Yet we also long for the permanent, some grand and eternal unity¹⁰.

We're idealists and we're realists.

We're dreamers and we're builders.

We experience and we do experiments.

We long for certainties, and yet we ourselves are full of the ambiguities¹¹ of the Mona Lisa and the I Ching.

We ourselves are part of the yin-yang of the world.

阿姆纳·纳瓦兹：文化战争如火如荼，其中一个冲突似乎表明科学与宗教难以和平共处。

阿兰·莱特曼是一位杰出的物理学家，也是一位在麻省理工大学任教的小说家。

今晚，他做客Humble Opinion栏目，分享他如何让物质与精神共存的观点。

阿兰·莱特曼，物理学家：我做了很多年的物理学家。

一直对世界持一种纯粹的科学观。

因此，我认为宇宙是由物质构成的，除此以外别无他物，宇宙间的定律就那么几条，世界上的一切最终都会瓦解逝去。

然后，在一个夏夜，我驾着一条小船出海。

那个夜晚漆黑、清朗，天空星光璀璨。

我躺在船上抬起头来。

几分钟后，我发现自己落入了无垠的时空。

我失去了一切自我的轨迹，从遥远的过去延伸到遥远的未来，广袤的时间似乎被压缩成了一个点。

我感受到了永恒与虚幻，感受到了超越物质世界的东西。

近年来，一些科学家试图用科学论据来质疑上帝的存在。

我认为这些人没有抓住要点。

上帝，正如大多数宗教所设想的那样，存在于时空之外。

你不能用科学的论据来反驳或证明上帝。

出于同样的原因，你不能用科学的论据来分析或理解那个夏夜的感觉，那一夜我躺在船上，抬头仰望，我感受到了比我更大的东西。

我仍是个科学家。

我仍然相信世界是由原子和分子构成的，没有别的。

但我也相信精神体验的力量和有效性。

是否有可能在不感到矛盾的情况下兼顾两者？

我认为可以。

我们明白物质世界中的一切都是物质的，注定要逝去。

然而，我们也渴望永恒与伟大的统一。

我们是理想主义者，我们也是现实主义者。

我们是梦想家，我们也是建设者。

我们体验，我们也实验。

我们渴望确定性，但我们自己也充满了蒙娜丽莎和易经的模糊性。

我们自己是世界阴阳的一部分。

1 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

2 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

3 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

4 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

5 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

6 disintegrates   

n.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的名词复数 )v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Particles rain down from the slug and it finally disintegrates. 颗粒从上面纷纷下落，最后腾涌消失。 来自辞典例句
• When the uranium disintegrates, it changes into lead. 当铀蜕变时，它变成了铅。 来自辞典例句

7 infinity   

n.无限，无穷，大量

参考例句：

• It is impossible to count up to infinity.不可能数到无穷大。
• Theoretically,a line can extend into infinity.从理论上来说直线可以无限地延伸。

8 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

9 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

10 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

11 ambiguities   

n.歧义( ambiguity的名词复数 )；意义不明确；模棱两可的意思；模棱两可的话

参考例句：

• His reply was full of ambiguities. 他的答复非常暧昧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Fortunately, no ambiguities hang about this word or about its opposite, indeterminism. 值得庆幸的是，关于这个词和它的反义词，非决定论都不存在多种解释。 来自哲学部分