You know, I think the very best arguments against the existence of God have been formulated by believers.
我认为反对上帝存在的最佳论点都是由信徒提出的。
Now here's what I mean: the story of Job is one of the great arguments against God's existence because of the awful suffering that Job, a righteous man, he's a good righteous man, follower of the Lord, and yet he goes through every type of suffering.
我的意思是:约伯的故事是驳斥上帝存在的最重要的论点之一,因为约伯,一个正直的人,一个好人,他追随上帝,却经历了各种痛苦。
And it leads Job to question, at least the goodness of God, if not the existence of God.
所以,即便没有质疑上帝的存在,约伯至少也开始质疑上帝的善良了。
Go forward many centuries to Thomas Aquinas: when Thomas sets up the question, 'Does God exist?'
再往前倒几个世纪,看看托马斯·阿奎那:当托马斯提出这个问题时,‘上帝存在吗?
He first lays out objections.
他率先提出了反对意见。
If one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed.
如果两种对立观点中的一个是无限的,另一个就绝不可能。
So if there were infinite heat, there'd be nothing cold- but God is described as 'infinitely good.'
也就是说,如果热是无限的,那就没有冷的东西--但上帝却被描述为“无限的善良”。
Therefore, if God exists there wouldn't be any evil, but there is evil.
因此,如果上帝存在,就没有任何邪恶,但事实是邪恶是存在的。
Therefore God doesn't exist. That's a darn good argument.
由此可知,上帝并不存在。这个论点很精彩。
Dostoevsky was a deeply believing Christian.
陀思妥耶夫斯基是一位虔诚的基督徒。
And yet he puts on the lips of his character, Ivan Karamazov, this awful argument against God.
但是,他作品中的角色伊万·卡拉马佐夫却把反对上帝存在的可怕论点挂在嘴边。
And Ivan is trying to convince his brother Alyosha who had been a monk, and was a devoutly mystical, religious person.
伊万正试图说服他的兄弟阿廖沙,阿廖沙曾是一名僧侣,是一个虔诚的神秘主义者。
And he says, "Look at all these examples of innocent children being tortured, in some cases, tortured to death."
他说:“看看那些无辜儿童被折磨的例子,在某些情况下,甚至被折磨致死。”
I mean read that, and it's as convincing as anything.
读到这里的时候,你会无比信服。
So three believers- the author of Job, Thomas Aquinas, and Dostoevsky- all lay out this argument, which is if there's so much evil in the world, let's face it, there can't be an all-good God.
因此,三位信徒--《约伯记》的作者托马斯·阿奎那和陀思妥耶夫斯基--都提出了这样的观点,即如果世界上有这么多邪恶,那我们就坦然承认吧,万能的上帝根本就不可能存在。
These are very good arguments against God.
这些都是反对上帝的很好的论据。
They're the best that the atheists have- is the argument from evil.
他们是无神论者所拥有的最好的东西--就是邪恶存在的论据。
Thomas Aquinas says, "God is so good that he permits certain evils, so as to bring about a greater good that could've never been accomplished otherwise."
托马斯·阿奎那说:“上帝是如此善良,他允许某些邪恶的存在,是为了实现更大的善,否则这些善永远不可能实现。”
There are examples where we can see that happening.
在一些案例中,我们可以看到这种现象。
Because of this evil, something really good happened to me that wouldn't have happened otherwise.
正是因为这种邪恶,一些非常美好的事情发生在了我身上,否则我是体验不到的。
That job I didn't get that was so devastating to me and caused so much suffering, but because I didn't get that job, I got this other job, which, in fact, has proved to be so life-giving.
我没有得到那份工作对我打击很大, 让我很痛苦,但也恰是因为我没有得到那份工作,我才得到了这份工作,事实证明,这份工作超级有活力。
That relationship that meant so much to me that breakup just broke my heart into a thousand pieces, but because of that I met this woman, whom I'm now married and I found the joy of my life.
那段关系对我来说意义重大,分手让我撕心裂肺,但正因为如此,我才遇到了这个女人,现在我结婚了,找到了一生的幸福。
Aquinas extrapolates from those experiences to say, 'Well, that's the way to think about God's permission of suffering.'
阿奎那从这些经历中推断出,‘我们应该用这种方式来看待上帝让我们受苦的原因。’
I think a lot of people are tripped up by a misunderstanding of what we mean by God.
我觉得很多人都误解了我们对“上帝”的定义。
If you imagine God as one more big, contingent thing among others, well then there's just, there's no evidence for that reality.
如果你把上帝当做万物中一个巨大的、偶然的事物,那么就没有证据去证明它。
But what's extraordinary is when you look at the surveys of a lot of young people who are disaffiliating, it's amazing how many say some version of, "Well, I don't believe in this Old Man in the Sky anymore."
但不同寻常的是,在对很多离群的年轻人进行调查时,许多人会说“我不再相信天上的这个老人了”,这很让人惊讶。
Well, I would've hoped you let that go when you let go of Santa Claus.
嗯,我会希望大家如果不相信圣诞老人了,就也不会相信上帝了。
I mean, it's the same kind of thing.
这其实是一回事。
And the fact that so many young people had been co-opted by these really inadequate understandings of God, of faith, of the Bible, of suffering, of all that.
事实上,很多年轻人因为对上帝、信仰、圣经、苦难等理解不充分,才倾向于相信它们。
He's a reason, I'll put it more philosophically, why there's something rather than nothing.
我会从更偏向于哲学的角度来解释为什么确实有一些东西是存在的。
Why there is a contingent, finite world at all.
解释为什么存在一个偶然的、有限的世界。
So I think that's the fundamental mistake that a lot of atheists, both old and new, tend to make.
我认为这是许多无神论者,无论是新旧的无神论者都会犯的根本错误。
They don't understand what serious believers mean by the word God.
他们不明白虔诚的信徒所说的上帝是什么意思。
That's, to a degree, our fault.
在某种程度上,这是我们的错。
We've been lousy at teaching and catechesis and preaching.
我们在教义、教理和布道方面做得很差。
Catholicism is a deeply intelligent tradition, but why do we hide those treasures away from young people?
天主教是一个非常有智慧的传统,但我们为什么要把这些宝藏藏起来,不让年轻人看到?
Young people are saying the stupidest things about their own religion.
年轻人正在对自己的宗教发表最愚蠢的言论。
Well, I mean, that's to a large degree, our fault.
我是说,这在很大程度上是我们的错。
So there is a crisis in preaching, teaching, and catechesis, and we gotta take some responsibility for that.
因此,在布道、教义和教理方面存在危机,我们必须为此承担一些责任。