2009年2月4日 星期三

愛因斯坦相信有神?

有些輕率的基督教傳道人聲稱「很多偉大科學家都信有神」,其中最為人所知,被點名示眾的的是愛因斯坦。

愛因斯坦著作之中,不錯是有用上 God 這個字,但他「相信有神」是一個怎樣的神,其中大有學問。這個神又是否基督教那個上帝?更是要明察秋毫,不能隨便揩油。

愛因斯坦是猶太人,他相信有的神,既不是猶太教的耶和華,也不是基督教的「上帝」;對很多基督教的基本教義,他甚至語多譏諷。
口講無憑,請看以下他的著作和書信的摘錄(小標題是我加上的):
不信教
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. (你所讀到有關我篤信宗教的說法是謊言,被有系統地重覆的謊言,我不相信人格化的上帝)If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. (The Human Side, Responding to a child who wrote and asked if scientists pray. Edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press)

論禱告
Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish addressed to a Supernatural Being.(....科學家很難會相信事物可以由向神靈禱告而受到影響)( The Human Side. )
 
論死後的賞罰
A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.(如果人類要一定要用死後的賞罰來規範行為,那就太不像話了。)("Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930)

不信有賞罰凡人的神
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation,(我不能想像到一個賞罰凡人的神) whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body,(我也不相信人在肉體死亡後還能夠生存) although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms.(Obituary in New York Times, 19 April 1955)

愛因斯坦相信的「
I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.(我相信的是斯賓諾沙所謂的神,祂在萬物的和諧中顯現,並非一個關心人類命運和行為的神)( responding to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein who had sent Einstein a cablegram bluntly demanding "Do you believe in God?" Quoted from Victor J. Stenger, Has Science Found God? 2001, chapter 3.)
 
神不理人間事
I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation.(我不相信直接影響人的行為的人格神,也不相信祂會審判其創造物) ...... My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God. (The Human Side)
 
神造人,人造神
The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am unable to take seriously.(人格神的觀念只不過是人類自創,我不能當真) (Letter to Hoffman and Dukas, 1946)

沒有永生
I do not believe in immortality of the individual(我不信人有永生), and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it. ( The Human Side)
 

人不可能知道神和宇宙的奧秘
We know nothing about [God, the world] at all. All our knowledge is but the knowledge of schoolchildren.(我們(對神和世界)一無所知,我們的知識猶如小學生) Possibly we shall know a little more than we do now. but the real nature of things, that we shall never know, never.(也許將來會知多一點點,但是事物的真相我們永遠永遠都不會知道) (The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press, Page 208)

愛因斯坦的說法,當然不一定對,任何人都可以不同意。

但是那些傳教士居然想瞞天過海,反而把對頭人愛因斯坦拉過來為同路人,加強自己的實力,只可以騙比他們更無知的信眾,徒為識者笑矣。
 
延伸閱讀
尚有大量關於宗教的「愛語錄」在 Einstein and Religion.com

(文章允許轉貼,請具作者名字:梁煥松)

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