第86篇 |
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Paper 86 |
宗教的早期演进 |
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Early Evolution of Religion |
86:0.1 (950.1) 从前述原始崇拜冲动开始的宗教之演进,并不依赖于启示。在宇宙母灵赐予的第六和第七个心智辅助者指导性影响下的正常人类心智运作,就完全足以确保这种发展。 |
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86:0.1 (950.1) THE evolution of religion from the preceding and primitive worship urge is not dependent on revelation. The normal functioning of the human mind under the directive influence of the sixth and seventh mind-adjutants of universal spirit bestowal is wholly sufficient to insure such development. |
86:0.2 (950.2) 随着自然在人类意识中变得人格化、灵性化并最终神灵化,人类对各种自然力的准宗教性恐惧逐渐变得宗教化了。因此,原始类型的宗教是逐渐进化的动物性心智在一度抱有超自然的观念之后,此类心智之心理惰性所产生的一种自然性生物学后果。 |
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86:0.2 (950.2) Man’s earliest prereligious fear of the forces of nature gradually became religious as nature became personalized, spiritized, and eventually deified in human consciousness. Religion of a primitive type was therefore a natural biologic consequence of the psychologic inertia of evolving animal minds after such minds had once entertained concepts of the supernatural. |
1. 运气:好运气和坏运气 ^top |
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1. Chance: Good Luck and Bad Luck ^top |
86:1.1 (950.3) 除了自然崇拜的冲动以外,早期进化类宗教还在人类的诸多机会体验 -- 即所谓的运气,司空见惯的各种偶发事件中拥有其根源。原始人是食物搜寻者。搜寻的结果必定不断变化,这便给了那些人类解释为好运气和坏运气的经历某种起源。坏运气曾是那些时常活在奔波不定生存边缘的男女们一生中一个重大的因素。 |
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86:1.1 (950.3) Aside from the natural worship urge, early evolutionary religion had its roots of origin in the human experiences of chance—so-called luck, commonplace happenings. Primitive man was a food hunter. The results of hunting must ever vary, and this gives certain origin to those experiences which man interprets as good luck and bad luck. Mischance was a great factor in the lives of men and women who lived constantly on the ragged edge of a precarious and harassed existence. |
86:1.2 (950.4) 野蛮人局限的智性视野将注意力如此集中于运气之上,以致运气成了他生活中一个常存的因素。原始的玉苒厦人(Urantian)挣扎着求生存,没法追求什么生活水准;他们过着充满危险的生活,机会在这其中扮演了一个重要的角色。对未知未见灾难的常存畏惧,就像一朵让人绝望的乌云般笼罩在这些野蛮人头上,这实际上使得每一个乐趣都黯然失色了;他们生活在常存的畏惧中,唯恐做出会带来坏运气的事情。迷信的野蛮人也总是害怕一连串的好运气;他们将这种好运气视为是灾难的某种前兆。 |
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86:1.2 (950.4) The limited intellectual horizon of the savage so concentrates the attention upon chance that luck becomes a constant factor in his life. Primitive Urantians struggled for existence, not for a standard of living; they lived lives of peril in which chance played an important role. The constant dread of unknown and unseen calamity hung over these savages as a cloud of despair which effectively eclipsed every pleasure; they lived in constant dread of doing something that would bring bad luck. Superstitious savages always feared a run of good luck; they viewed such good fortune as a certain harbinger of calamity. |
86:1.3 (950.5) 这种对坏运气的常存畏惧是令人气馁的。为何努力工作而收获坏运气 -- 即劳而不获,与此同时一个人或许得过且过而碰到好运气 -- 即不劳而获呢?缺乏思考的人们忘记了好运气 -- 认为它是理所当然的 -- 但他们却痛苦地记住了坏运气。 |
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86:1.3 (950.5) This ever-present dread of bad luck was paralyzing. Why work hard and reap bad luck—nothing for something—when one might drift along and encounter good luck—something for nothing? Unthinking men forget good luck—take it for granted—but they painfully remember bad luck. |
86:1.4 (950.6) 早期人类生活在不确定之中,生活在对机会 -- 即坏运气的时常畏惧之中。生活曾是一场充满机会的刺激游戏;生存曾是一场赌博。难怪部分开化的人仍相信机会,并显示出挥之不去的赌博倾向。原始人徘徊于两种潜在的兴趣之间:对不劳而获的爱好和对劳而不获的畏惧。而这场生存赌博曾是早期野蛮人头脑中的主要兴趣和最高迷恋。 |
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86:1.4 (950.6) Early man lived in uncertainty and in constant fear of chance—bad luck. Life was an exciting game of chance; existence was a gamble. It is no wonder that partially civilized people still believe in chance and evince lingering predispositions to gambling. Primitive man alternated between two potent interests: the passion of getting something for nothing and the fear of getting nothing for something. And this gamble of existence was the main interest and the supreme fascination of the early savage mind. |
86:1.5 (951.1) 后来的牧人对于机会和运气也持有同样的观点,而再后来的农耕者日益意识到,作物会受到有很多人类几近无法控制之事的直接影响。农民发现自己是干旱、洪涝、冰雹、风暴、害虫和作物病害的受害者,也是炎热和酷寒的受害者。而当所有这些自然因素影响到个人的富足时,它们便被视为好运气或是坏运气。 |
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86:1.5 (951.1) The later herders held the same views of chance and luck, while the still later agriculturists were increasingly conscious that crops were immediately influenced by many things over which man had little or no control. The farmer found himself the victim of drought, floods, hail, storms, pests, and plant diseases, as well as heat and cold. And as all of these natural influences affected individual prosperity, they were regarded as good luck or bad luck. |
86:1.6 (951.2) 这种机会和运气的观念,强烈地渗透到了所有古代民族的人生观当中。即便是在近来时代,在《所罗门智慧篇》中有说到:“我回想并意识到,快跑的未必赢,力战的未必胜,聪明的未必得食,明哲的未必得财,灵巧的未必得惠;临到他们身上的却是命运和机会。因为人不知自己的命运;正如鱼儿被恶网围住,鸟儿被网罗捉住,所以当祸患突然来临时,世人也是如此陷在其中。” |
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86:1.6 (951.2) This notion of chance and luck strongly pervaded the philosophy of all ancient peoples. Even in recent times in the Wisdom of Solomon it is said: “I returned and saw that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but fate and chance befall them all. For man knows not his fate; as fishes are taken in an evil net, and as birds are caught in a snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them.” |
2. 机会的拟人化 ^top |
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2. The Personification of Chance ^top |
86:2.1 (951.3) 焦虑是野蛮人头脑的一种自然状态。当男女们成为过度焦虑的受害者时,他们无非是回到了其远祖的自然状态中;而当焦虑变得实在痛苦时,它就会抑制活动,并会不断地创建进化性转变和生物性适应。痛苦和受难对于渐进性演变来说,是必不可少的。 |
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86:2.1 (951.3) Anxiety was a natural state of the savage mind. When men and women fall victims to excessive anxiety, they are simply reverting to the natural estate of their far-distant ancestors; and when anxiety becomes actually painful, it inhibits activity and unfailingly institutes evolutionary changes and biologic adaptations. Pain and suffering are essential to progressive evolution. |
86:2.2 (951.4) 为生活而挣扎是如此痛苦,以致如今有些落后的部落甚至还对着每天的新日出嚎叫和哀叹。原始人时常会问:“是谁在折磨我?”由于无法为其苦难找到一种物质性来源,他便选择了一种鬼神性的解释。而宗教就这样产生于对神秘性的恐惧,对不可见物的敬畏,以及对未知世界的畏惧。对自然的恐惧就这样成了生存挣扎中的一个因素,起先是由于机会,后来是由于神秘性。 |
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86:2.2 (951.4) The struggle for life is so painful that certain backward tribes even yet howl and lament over each new sunrise. Primitive man constantly asked, “Who is tormenting me?” Not finding a material source for his miseries, he settled upon a spirit explanation. And so was religion born of the fear of the mysterious, the awe of the unseen, and the dread of the unknown. Nature fear thus became a factor in the struggle for existence first because of chance and then because of mystery. |
86:2.3 (951.5) 原始人的头脑是有逻辑性的,但对智能联想却鲜有想法;野蛮人的头脑是缺乏教养的,是完全未经世故的。若一个事件紧随另一个事件发生,野蛮人便认为它们是因与果。文明人视为迷信的东西,只是野蛮人身上的朴实无知。人类很缓慢地认识到,意图和结果之间并不必然有任何关联。人类仅才刚开始意识到,在行为和结果之间,还出现了存在物的反作用。野蛮人力图把每样无形抽象的东西拟人化,由此自然和机会都作为魂灵以及后来的诸神而变得拟人化了。 |
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86:2.3 (951.5) The primitive mind was logical but contained few ideas for intelligent association; the savage mind was uneducated, wholly unsophisticated. If one event followed another, the savage considered them to be cause and effect. What civilized man regards as superstition was just plain ignorance in the savage. Mankind has been slow to learn that there is not necessarily any relationship between purposes and results. Human beings are only just beginning to realize that the reactions of existence appear between acts and their consequences. The savage strives to personalize everything intangible and abstract, and thus both nature and chance become personalized as ghosts—spirits—and later on as gods. |
86:2.4 (951.6) 人类自然倾向于相信,自己觉得最适合自身的东西,便是符合其当前或是长远利益的东西。自我利益在很大程度上使其逻辑变得模糊不清。野蛮人和开化人头脑之间的差别,更多是一种量的差别,而非质的差别,只是在程度上的差别,而非品质上的差别。 |
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86:2.4 (951.6) Man naturally tends to believe that which he deems best for him, that which is in his immediate or remote interest; self-interest largely obscures logic. The difference between the minds of savage and civilized men is more one of content than of nature, of degree rather than of quality. |
86:2.5 (951.7) 但继续把难以理解之事归咎于超自然之因,完全是一种避免各式智性苦工的懒惰方便之举。运气仅是一个被杜撰出来以涵盖所有人类生存时代中难解之事的术语;它指代那些人类不能或不愿去深究的现象。机会则是一个意味着人太过无知或太过懒惰而不想去确定原因的词语。只有当人们缺乏好奇和想象,当各种族缺乏主动性和冒险精神时,他们才会把一个自然事件视为一种意外或是坏运气。对生活现象的探索迟早会摧毁人类对机会、运气和所谓意外的信念,取而代之的是一个有规律有秩序的宇宙,在这当中诸多明确起因先于一切结果。由此生存之恐惧会被生活之喜悦所取代。 |
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86:2.5 (951.7) But to continue to ascribe things difficult of comprehension to supernatural causes is nothing less than a lazy and convenient way of avoiding all forms of intellectual hard work. Luck is merely a term coined to cover the inexplicable in any age of human existence; it designates those phenomena which men are unable or unwilling to penetrate. Chance is a word which signifies that man is too ignorant or too indolent to determine causes. Men regard a natural occurrence as an accident or as bad luck only when they are destitute of curiosity and imagination, when the races lack initiative and adventure. Exploration of the phenomena of life sooner or later destroys man’s belief in chance, luck, and so-called accidents, substituting therefor a universe of law and order wherein all effects are preceded by definite causes. Thus is the fear of existence replaced by the joy of living. |
86:2.6 (952.1) 野蛮人把万物都视为是有生气的,都被某种东西所占据了。文明人仍会对那些挡路且碰到他的无生命物又踢又咒。原始人从未将任何事视为意外;每件事都是有意的。对于原始人来说,命运之域、运气之行、鬼神世界,就像原始社会一样毫无组织、毫无计划。运气被视为鬼神世界反复无常的回应;后来则被视为诸神的脾气。 |
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86:2.6 (952.1) The savage looked upon all nature as alive, as possessed by something. Civilized man still kicks and curses those inanimate objects which get in his way and bump him. Primitive man never regarded anything as accidental; always was everything intentional. To primitive man the domain of fate, the function of luck, the spirit world, was just as unorganized and haphazard as was primitive society. Luck was looked upon as the whimsical and temperamental reaction of the spirit world; later on, as the humor of the gods. |
86:2.7 (952.2) 但并非所有宗教都从万物有灵论发展而来。其它一些超自然的观念和万物有灵论是同一时期的,而这些信仰也导致了崇拜。自然主义不是一种宗教 -- 它是宗教的产物。 |
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86:2.7 (952.2) But all religions did not develop from animism. Other concepts of the supernatural were contemporaneous with animism, and these beliefs also led to worship. Naturalism is not a religion—it is the offspring of religion. |
3. 死亡 -- 难解之事 ^top |
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3. Death—The Inexplicable ^top |
86:3.1 (952.3) 死亡对进化的人类来说是最大的震撼,是机会和神秘最为复杂的组合。不是生之尊严,而是死之震撼激发了恐惧,并由此有力地促进了宗教。在野蛮民族中,死亡通常是缘于暴力,因而非暴力的死亡就变得日益神秘。死亡作为一种自然而又意料之中的生命终结,对于原始民族的意识来说是不明的,人类需要许多世代才意识到它的不可避免性。 |
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86:3.1 (952.3) Death was the supreme shock to evolving man, the most perplexing combination of chance and mystery. Not the sanctity of life but the shock of death inspired fear and thus effectively fostered religion. Among savage peoples death was ordinarily due to violence, so that nonviolent death became increasingly mysterious. Death as a natural and expected end of life was not clear to the consciousness of primitive people, and it has required age upon age for man to realize its inevitability. |
86:3.2 (952.4) 早期人类把生存接受为一种事实,而把死亡看作某种天罚。所有民族都有其不死之人的传说,即早期对死亡态度的残余传统。在人的头脑中已存在一种关于模糊无序鬼神界的概念,人生活中的一切难解之事都来自该域,而死亡也被列入了这一长串无法解释的现象之中。 |
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86:3.2 (952.4) Early man accepted life as a fact, while he regarded death as a visitation of some sort. All races have their legends of men who did not die, vestigial traditions of the early attitude toward death. Already in the human mind there existed the nebulous concept of a hazy and unorganized spirit world, a domain whence came all that is inexplicable in human life, and death was added to this long list of unexplained phenomena. |
86:3.3 (952.5) 起初,人们相信所有人类疾病和自然死亡都是由于鬼神的影响。即便是在当今时代,一些文明的民族仍把疾病视为是由“恶魔”所造成,并依赖宗教仪式来实施疗愈。后来更为复杂的神学体系仍把疾病归咎于鬼神世界的作用,所有这一切导致了诸如原罪和人类堕落等学说。 |
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86:3.3 (952.5) All human disease and natural death was at first believed to be due to spirit influence. Even at the present time some civilized races regard disease as having been produced by “the enemy” and depend upon religious ceremonies to effect healing. Later and more complex systems of theology still ascribe death to the action of the spirit world, all of which has led to such doctrines as original sin and the fall of man. |
86:3.4 (952.6) 正是意识到在强大自然力面前的无能为力,加之承认在疾病和死亡面前的人性软弱,迫使野蛮人试图从超物质世界寻求帮助,他将此世界模糊地观想成这些神秘生活变迁的源头所在。 |
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86:3.4 (952.6) It was the realization of impotency before the mighty forces of nature, together with the recognition of human weakness before the visitations of sickness and death, that impelled the savage to seek for help from the supermaterial world, which he vaguely visualized as the source of these mysterious vicissitudes of life. |
4. 死后续存的观念 ^top |
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4. The Death-Survival Concept ^top |
86:4.1 (952.7) 有关超物质层面凡人人格的观念,诞生于日常生活事件与鬼梦无意而又纯属偶然的关联。一个去世的首领被其部落中的几个成员同时梦到,似乎构成了令人信服的证据,表明已故首领真的以某种形式回来了。对于浑身带汗、颤抖尖叫着从这类梦中惊醒的野蛮人来说,这一切非常的真实。 |
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86:4.1 (952.7) The concept of a supermaterial phase of mortal personality was born of the unconscious and purely accidental association of the occurrences of everyday life plus the ghost dream. The simultaneous dreaming about a departed chief by several members of his tribe seemed to constitute convincing evidence that the old chief had really returned in some form. It was all very real to the savage who would awaken from such dreams reeking with sweat, trembling, and screaming. |
86:4.2 (953.1) 来生信仰的梦境起源,说明了人类总是以可见事物去想象不可见事物的倾向。不久,这种新的梦萦来生的观念,就开始有效缓解了与生物自我延续本能相关的死亡恐惧。 |
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86:4.2 (953.1) The dream origin of the belief in a future existence explains the tendency always to imagine unseen things in the terms of things seen. And presently this new dream-ghost-future-life concept began effectively to antidote the death fear associated with the biologic instinct of self-preservation. |
86:4.3 (953.2) 早期人类也很担心自己的呼吸,尤其是在寒冷的气候中,当呼气时看似一团雾。生命之气息曾被视为一种区分生者和死者的现象。他知道这一气息可以离开身体,而在睡眠中做出各种奇怪事情的梦境,又使他确信人周围存在着某种非物质的东西。人类灵魂的最原始观念、即鬼魂,就是源于气息与梦境的观念体系。 |
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86:4.3 (953.2) Early man was also much concerned about his breath, especially in cold climates, where it appeared as a cloud when exhaled. The breath of life was regarded as the one phenomenon which differentiated the living and the dead. He knew the breath could leave the body, and his dreams of doing all sorts of queer things while asleep convinced him that there was something immaterial about a human being. The most primitive idea of the human soul, the ghost, was derived from the breath-dream idea-system. |
86:4.4 (953.3) 最终,野蛮人将自身设想为一个双重体 -- 即身体和气息。气息减去身体便等于灵魂,即鬼魂。尽管拥有一种非常明确的人类起源,但鬼魂或是鬼神却被视为是超人类的。而这种在无实体性鬼神存在方面的信仰,似乎可以解释一切不寻常之事、非凡之事、稀有之事以及难解之事。 |
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86:4.4 (953.3) Eventually the savage conceived of himself as a double—body and breath. The breath minus the body equaled a spirit, a ghost. While having a very definite human origin, ghosts, or spirits, were regarded as superhuman. And this belief in the existence of disembodied spirits seemed to explain the occurrence of the unusual, the extraordinary, the infrequent, and the inexplicable. |
86:4.5 (953.4) 死后续存的原始学说,未必是一种永生的信仰。无法数过二十的存有很难设想无限和永恒;他们只不过想到了循环往复的化身而已。 |
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86:4.5 (953.4) The primitive doctrine of survival after death was not necessarily a belief in immortality. Beings who could not count over twenty could hardly conceive of infinity and eternity; they rather thought of recurring incarnations. |
86:4.6 (953.5) 橙色种族尤惯于相信轮回和转世。这种转世的观念,源于对后代与祖先遗传特征相似方面的观察。用祖父母及其它祖先的名字给孩子命名的习俗,便是由于转世的信仰。一些近来的民族相信,人死过三到七次。这种(从亚当有关宅厦世界的教导中残留下来的)信仰,以及启示类宗教的许多其它残留部分,仍可在二十世纪野蛮人否则荒谬的学说中得以找到。 |
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86:4.6 (953.5) The orange race was especially given to belief in transmigration and reincarnation. This idea of reincarnation originated in the observance of hereditary and trait resemblance of offspring to ancestors. The custom of naming children after grandparents and other ancestors was due to belief in reincarnation. Some later-day races believed that man died from three to seven times. This belief (residual from the teachings of Adam about the mansion worlds), and many other remnants of revealed religion, can be found among the otherwise absurd doctrines of twentieth-century barbarians. |
86:4.7 (953.6) 早期人类不抱有任何地狱和将来惩罚的观念。野蛮人将来生视作就如同今生一般,减掉了所有的厄运。后来,关于好鬼魂和坏鬼魂的各自天命 -- 即天堂和地狱 -- 被构想出来了。但由于许多原始种族相信人离开此生时就会进入下一生,他们并不喜欢老态龙钟的观念。老年人更愿意在变得过于虚弱之前被杀死。 |
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86:4.7 (953.6) Early man entertained no ideas of hell or future punishment. The savage looked upon the future life as just like this one, minus all ill luck. Later on, a separate destiny for good ghosts and bad ghosts—heaven and hell—was conceived. But since many primitive races believed that man entered the next life just as he left this one, they did not relish the idea of becoming old and decrepit. The aged much preferred to be killed before becoming too infirm. |
86:4.8 (953.7) 对于鬼魂的天命而言,几乎每一族群都有过不同的观念。希腊人相信虚弱的人有着虚弱的鬼魂;因此他们创造了冥界作为接纳这些虚弱鬼魂的一个合适地方;人们还猜想这些羸弱之人的影子也比较短。早期安德族人认为,他们的鬼魂会回到祖先的家园。中国人和埃及人则一度曾相信鬼魂和身体会留在一起。在埃及人中间,这导致了精心的坟墓建造以及在身体保存方面的努力。即便是现代民族,也试图防止死者的腐烂。希伯来人曾设想,个人的一种幽灵副本会下到阴间;它无法重返人世。他们的确在鬼魂演变的教义方面取得了那一重大进步。 |
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86:4.8 (953.7) Almost every group had a different idea regarding the destiny of the ghost soul. The Greeks believed that weak men must have weak souls; so they invented Hades as a fit place for the reception of such anemic souls; these unrobust specimens were also supposed to have shorter shadows. The early Andites thought their ghosts returned to the ancestral homelands. The Chinese and Egyptians once believed that soul and body remained together. Among the Egyptians this led to careful tomb construction and efforts at body preservation. Even modern peoples seek to arrest the decay of the dead. The Hebrews conceived that a phantom replica of the individual went down to Sheol; it could not return to the land of the living. They did make that important advance in the doctrine of the evolution of the soul. |
5. 鬼魂观念 ^top |
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5. The Ghost-Soul Concept ^top |
86:5.1 (953.8) 人的非物质组成部分被称呼为不同的名字,诸如鬼、灵、阴魂、幽灵、幽魂,以及后来的灵魂。灵魂是早期人类的梦境分身;除了对触摸没有响应之外,它在各方面都极像凡人本身。梦境分身的信仰,直接导致了所有有生命和无生命的事物都和人一样拥有灵魂的观念。这种观念长期以来易于使自然之灵的信仰持续下去;爱斯基摩人仍然设想自然界的一切事物都有灵。 |
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86:5.1 (953.8) The nonmaterial part of man has been variously termed ghost, spirit, shade, phantom, specter, and latterly soul. The soul was early man’s dream double; it was in every way exactly like the mortal himself except that it was not responsive to touch. The belief in dream doubles led directly to the notion that all things animate and inanimate had souls as well as men. This concept tended long to perpetuate the nature-spirit beliefs; the Eskimos still conceive that everything in nature has a spirit. |
86:5.2 (954.1) 鬼魂可被听到看到,但却无法被触摸到。逐渐地,人类的梦境生活使得这一逐步演进鬼神世界的活动发展和扩张开来,以至死亡最后被视为是“放弃鬼魂”。所有的原始部落,除了那些略高于动物的以外,都发展出了某种灵魂的观念。随着文明的进步,这种迷信的灵魂观念被摧毁了,人类要完全依赖启示和个人宗教体验来获得其关于灵魂的新观念,即灵魂是知神凡人心智与其内驻神性之灵、即思想调整者的共同创造物。 |
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86:5.2 (954.1) The ghost soul could be heard and seen, but not touched. Gradually the dream life of the race so developed and expanded the activities of this evolving spirit world that death was finally regarded as “giving up the ghost.” All primitive tribes, except those little above animals, have developed some concept of the soul. As civilization advances, this superstitious concept of the soul is destroyed, and man is wholly dependent on revelation and personal religious experience for his new idea of the soul as the joint creation of the God-knowing mortal mind and its indwelling divine spirit, the Thought Adjuster. |
86:5.3 (954.2) 早期凡人通常无法区分出一个内驻之灵与一个具有进化本质之魂的观念。对于鬼魂究竟是出自于身体,还是占有身体的一种外部代理者,野蛮人曾感到非常困惑。在困惑面前,理性思考的缺乏说明了野蛮人对灵魂、鬼魂和鬼神观点的明显不一致。 |
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86:5.3 (954.2) Early mortals usually failed to differentiate the concepts of an indwelling spirit and a soul of evolutionary nature. The savage was much confused as to whether the ghost soul was native to the body or was an external agency in possession of the body. The absence of reasoned thought in the presence of perplexity explains the gross inconsistencies of the savage view of souls, ghosts, and spirits. |
86:5.4 (954.3) 灵魂之于身体的关系,曾被考虑成芳香之于花朵的关系。古人相信灵魂能以各种方式离开身体: |
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86:5.4 (954.3) The soul was thought of as being related to the body as the perfume to the flower. The ancients believed that the soul could leave the body in various ways, as in: |
86:5.5 (954.4) 1. 普通而短暂的昏厥。 |
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86:5.5 (954.4) 1. Ordinary and transient fainting. |
86:5.6 (954.5) 2. 睡眠,自然的梦境。 |
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86:5.6 (954.5) 2. Sleeping, natural dreaming. |
86:5.7 (954.6) 3. 与疾病和意外有关的昏迷和无意识。 |
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86:5.7 (954.6) 3. Coma and unconsciousness associated with disease and accidents. |
86:5.8 (954.7) 4. 死亡,永久的离去。 |
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86:5.8 (954.7) 4. Death, permanent departure. |
86:5.9 (954.8) 野蛮人把打喷嚏视为灵魂想要逃离身体的一次失败的尝试。保持清醒和警觉,身体就能挫败灵魂的逃逸企图。后来,打喷嚏总是伴随着某种宗教表达,比如“神保佑你!” |
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86:5.9 (954.8) The savage looked upon sneezing as an abortive attempt of the soul to escape from the body. Being awake and on guard, the body was able to thwart the soul’s attempted escape. Later on, sneezing was always accompanied by some religious expression, such as “God bless you!” |
86:5.10 (954.9) 在进化的早期,睡眠被视作证明了鬼魂可以离开身体,人们也相信,它可以通过说出或叫出睡眠者的名字而被召回来。在其它形式的无意识中,灵魂被认为是更加地远离了,或许它在试图永远地逃脱 -- 即濒死状态。做梦则被视为是灵魂在睡眠期间暂时离开身体时的体验。野蛮人相信他的梦境就如同他醒时体验的所有部分那样真实。古人养成了慢慢叫醒睡眠者的习惯,这样灵魂或许会有时间返回到身体中。 |
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86:5.10 (954.9) Early in evolution sleep was regarded as proving that the ghost soul could be absent from the body, and it was believed that it could be called back by speaking or shouting the sleeper’s name. In other forms of unconsciousness the soul was thought to be farther away, perhaps trying to escape for good—impending death. Dreams were looked upon as the experiences of the soul during sleep while temporarily absent from the body. The savage believes his dreams to be just as real as any part of his waking experience. The ancients made a practice of awaking sleepers gradually so that the soul might have time to get back into the body. |
86:5.11 (954.10) 古往今来,人们一直对夜间的鬼怪感到敬畏,希伯来人也不例外。他们真的相信神会在梦中对他们说话,尽管有摩西反对这种想法的禁令。摩西是对的,因为在灵性世界的人格们寻求和物质存有交流时,平常的梦境并不是他们所采用的方法。 |
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86:5.11 (954.10) All down through the ages men have stood in awe of the apparitions of the night season, and the Hebrews were no exception. They truly believed that God spoke to them in dreams, despite the injunctions of Moses against this idea. And Moses was right, for ordinary dreams are not the methods employed by the personalities of the spiritual world when they seek to communicate with material beings. |
86:5.12 (954.11) 古人曾相信灵魂可能进入动物甚或是无生命的物体内。这在与动物相认同的狼人观念中达到顶点。一个人白天可能是一个守法公民,但当他睡着时,他的灵魂却可能进入一只狼或是其它的动物体中,东游西荡进行夜间破坏。 |
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86:5.12 (954.11) The ancients believed that souls could enter animals or even inanimate objects. This culminated in the werewolf ideas of animal identification. A person could be a law-abiding citizen by day, but when he fell asleep, his soul could enter a wolf or some other animal to prowl about on nocturnal depredations. |
86:5.13 (955.1) 原始人认为灵魂和呼吸相关联,并认为灵魂的品质可通过呼吸得以授予和转让。勇敢的首领会向新生儿身上呼气,以此方式来授予勇气。在早期基督徒当中,圣灵恩赐的仪式会伴随着向候选者吹气。诗篇作者有云:“诸天藉上主的话语而造,万象由他呼出的气息而成。”很久以来就有这样一个传统,长子要尽力赶上其临终父亲的最后一口气。 |
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86:5.13 (955.1) Primitive men thought that the soul was associated with the breath, and that its qualities could be imparted or transferred by the breath. The brave chief would breathe upon the newborn child, thereby imparting courage. Among early Christians the ceremony of bestowing the Holy Spirit was accompanied by breathing on the candidates. Said the Psalmist: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” It was long the custom of the eldest son to try to catch the last breath of his dying father. |
86:5.14 (955.2) 后来,影子逐渐同呼吸一样受到畏惧和尊崇。自身在水中的倒影也时常被看作是双重自我的证据,镜子也受到了迷信敬畏式的看待。即便是现在,许多开化的人仍在丧事时把镜子翻转过来面向墙壁。一些落后的部落也仍相信,照片、绘画、模型以及雕像的制作会从身体中转移灵魂的全部或是一部分;因而这些都是被禁止的。 |
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86:5.14 (955.2) The shadow came, later on, to be feared and revered equally with the breath. The reflection of oneself in the water was also sometimes looked upon as proof of the double self, and mirrors were regarded with superstitious awe. Even now many civilized persons turn the mirror to the wall in the event of death. Some backward tribes still believe that the making of pictures, drawings, models, or images removes all or a part of the soul from the body; hence such are forbidden. |
86:5.15 (955.3) 灵魂通常被认为与呼吸相关,但各个民族分别认为它位于头部、毛发、心脏、肝脏、血液以及脂肪之中。“亚伯的血从地里发出的哀号” 便是一度相信鬼魂存在于血液中的一个表达。闪族人教导过灵魂居于身体的脂肪之中,在很多人中间,吃动物的脂肪曾是禁忌。猎头也曾是捕获敌人灵魂的一种方法,正如剥取头皮一样。而在近来时代,眼睛则被一直视为是灵魂的窗户。 |
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86:5.15 (955.3) The soul was generally thought of as being identified with the breath, but it was also located by various peoples in the head, hair, heart, liver, blood, and fat. The “crying out of Abel’s blood from the ground” is expressive of the onetime belief in the presence of the ghost in the blood. The Semites taught that the soul resided in the bodily fat, and among many the eating of animal fat was taboo. Head hunting was a method of capturing an enemy’s soul, as was scalping. In recent times the eyes have been regarded as the windows of the soul. |
86:5.16 (955.4) 那些持有三魂或四魂说的人相信 ,丢失一个魂意味着不适,丢失两个则意味着疾病,丢失三个则意味着死亡。他们也相信,一魂活在呼吸中,一魂活在头脑中,一魂活在毛发中,一魂活在心脏中。病人曾被建议多在户外散步,以期重获其失散的魂。人们曾认为最伟大的巫医可把一个病人的生病灵魂换成一个新的灵魂,即“新生”。 |
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86:5.16 (955.4) Those who held the doctrine of three or four souls believed that the loss of one soul meant discomfort, two illness, three death. One soul lived in the breath, one in the head, one in the hair, one in the heart. The sick were advised to stroll about in the open air with the hope of recapturing their strayed souls. The greatest of the medicine men were supposed to exchange the sick soul of a diseased person for a new one, the “new birth.” |
86:5.17 (955.5) 巴德南人发展出了一套两魂的信仰,即呼吸和影子。早期的诺德族将人视为由两个活体组成,即身体和灵魂。这种关于人类存在的哲学,后来在希腊人的观点中也有所反映。希腊人本身相信人有三个灵魂 ,植物性灵魂居于腹部,动物性灵魂居于胸部,理智性灵魂居于头部。爱斯基摩人则相信人有三部分组成:身体、灵魂和名字。 |
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86:5.17 (955.5) The children of Badonan developed a belief in two souls, the breath and the shadow. The early Nodite races regarded man as consisting of two persons, soul and body. This philosophy of human existence was later reflected in the Greek viewpoint. The Greeks themselves believed in three souls; the vegetative resided in the stomach, the animal in the heart, the intellectual in the head. The Eskimos believe that man has three parts: body, soul, and name. |
6. 魂灵环境 ^top |
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6. The Ghost-Spirit Environment ^top |
86:6.1 (955.6) 人类继承了一个自然环境,获得了一个社会环境,还想象了一个鬼魂环境。国家是人类对其自然环境的反应,家庭是人类对其社会环境的反应,教会则是人类对其虚幻鬼魂环境的反应。 |
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86:6.1 (955.6) Man inherited a natural environment, acquired a social environment, and imagined a ghost environment. The state is man’s reaction to his natural environment, the home to his social environment, the church to his illusory ghost environment. |
86:6.2 (955.7) 在人类历史的极早期,假想性魂灵世界的真实性曾被普遍相信过,这个新想象出来的灵界在原始社会成为了一股力量。整个人类的精神和道德生活,因人类思考和活动中这一新要素的出现而被永久改变了。 |
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86:6.2 (955.7) Very early in the history of mankind the realities of the imaginary world of ghosts and spirits became universally believed, and this newly imagined spirit world became a power in primitive society. The mental and moral life of all mankind was modified for all time by the appearance of this new factor in human thinking and acting. |
86:6.3 (955.8) 在这种充满幻想和无知的大前提下,致命的恐惧充斥到了所有原始民族衍生出的迷信和宗教当中。这是人类在启示时代之前的唯一宗教,而今天这个世界的许多民族仍然只有这种粗陋的进化类宗教。 |
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86:6.3 (955.8) Into this major premise of illusion and ignorance, mortal fear has packed all of the subsequent superstition and religion of primitive peoples. This was man’s only religion up to the times of revelation, and today many of the world’s races have only this crude religion of evolution. |
86:6.4 (955.9) 随着进化推展,好运气变得和好鬼神相关联,坏运气则变得和坏鬼神相关联。被迫适应不断变化环境所出现的不适,被视为是坏运气或魂灵的不悦。原始人从其天生的崇拜冲动及其关于机会的错误观念中缓慢发展出了宗教。文明人提供了保险计划来克服这些偶发事件;现代科学使用一套带有数学计算的保险精算体系,取代了怪力乱神。 |
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86:6.4 (955.9) As evolution progressed, good luck became associated with good spirits and bad luck with bad spirits. The discomfort of enforced adaptation to a changing environment was regarded as ill luck, the displeasure of the spirit ghosts. Primitive man slowly evolved religion out of his innate worship urge and his misconception of chance. Civilized man provides schemes of insurance to overcome these chance occurrences; modern science puts an actuary with mathematical reckoning in the place of fictitious spirits and whimsical gods. |
86:6.5 (956.1) 每一过去的世代都会嘲笑其祖先的愚昧迷信,而它又会继续容纳那些错误的想法和崇拜,这又会引起更为开明后人的进一步嘲笑。 |
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86:6.5 (956.1) Each passing generation smiles at the foolish superstitions of its ancestors while it goes on entertaining those fallacies of thought and worship which will give cause for further smiling on the part of enlightened posterity. |
86:6.6 (956.2) 但最终,原始人的头脑被那些超越了其全部内在生物冲动的念头所占据了;最终人类行将演化出一种基于某种远超出物质刺激反应事物之上的生活艺术。一种原始哲理性的生活方针开始浮现。一种超自然的生活规范也行将出现,因为,若恼怒的魂灵带来坏运气,而喜悦的魂灵带来好运气,那么人类的行为必定要相应加以规管。是与非的观念最终演变出来了;所有这一切都远在世间的启示时代之前。 |
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86:6.6 (956.2) But at last the mind of primitive man was occupied with thoughts which transcended all of his inherent biologic urges; at last man was about to evolve an art of living based on something more than response to material stimuli. The beginnings of a primitive philosophic life policy were emerging. A supernatural standard of living was about to appear, for, if the spirit ghost in anger visits ill luck and in pleasure good fortune, then must human conduct be regulated accordingly. The concept of right and wrong had at last evolved; and all of this long before the times of any revelation on earth. |
86:6.7 (956.3) 随着这些观念的出现, 试图安抚那些始终不快鬼神的长期挥霍性努力便开始了,进化类宗教恐惧的奴性束缚便开始了,把人力耗费在坟墓、寺庙、祭祀和祭司身上的长期浪费便开始了。这一切付出了可怕而惊人的代价,但毕竟还是物有所值,因为人类自此便获得了一种有关相对性是非的自然意识,人类伦理由此诞生了! |
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86:6.7 (956.3) With the emergence of these concepts, there was initiated the long and wasteful struggle to appease the ever-displeased spirits, the slavish bondage to evolutionary religious fear, that long waste of human effort upon tombs, temples, sacrifices, and priesthoods. It was a terrible and frightful price to pay, but it was worth all it cost, for man therein achieved a natural consciousness of relative right and wrong; human ethics was born! |
7. 原始宗教的作用 ^top |
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7. The Function of Primitive Religion ^top |
86:7.1 (956.4) 野蛮人感觉到了保险的需要,因此他自愿为其防备坏运气的魔法保险支出了附含害怕、迷信、畏惧和祭司赠礼的繁重保险费。原始宗教仅是为防范丛林危险而支付的保险费;文明人则为防范现代生活方式中的产业事故和紧急状况而支付物质性保险费。 |
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86:7.1 (956.4) The savage felt the need of insurance, and he therefore willingly paid his burdensome premiums of fear, superstition, dread, and priest gifts toward his policy of magic insurance against ill luck. Primitive religion was simply the payment of premiums on insurance against the perils of the forests; civilized man pays material premiums against the accidents of industry and the exigencies of modern modes of living. |
86:7.2 (956.5) 现代社会正将保险业务从祭司和宗教领域转移出来,而将它放到了经济领域中。宗教正逐渐将它自身与死后生活的保险联系了起来。现代人,至少那些会思考的人,不再支付浪费性的保险费来控制运气。而宗教与其先前作为一种防范厄运的保险计划作用相比,正在缓慢上升到更高的哲学层次。 |
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86:7.2 (956.5) Modern society is removing the business of insurance from the realm of priests and religion, placing it in the domain of economics. Religion is concerning itself increasingly with the insurance of life beyond the grave. Modern men, at least those who think, no longer pay wasteful premiums to control luck. Religion is slowly ascending to higher philosophic levels in contrast with its former function as a scheme of insurance against bad luck. |
86:7.3 (956.6) 但这些古代的宗教观念也防止了人们变得宿命论和悲观绝望;他们相信自己至少可以做点儿什么去影响命运。鬼魂恐惧产生的宗教给人们留下的深刻印象是,他们必须要规管自己的行为,有一个超物质的世界在控制着人的命运。 |
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86:7.3 (956.6) But these ancient ideas of religion prevented men from becoming fatalistic and hopelessly pessimistic; they believed they could at least do something to influence fate. The religion of ghost fear impressed upon men that they must regulate their conduct, that there was a supermaterial world which was in control of human destiny. |
86:7.4 (956.7) 现代文明民族刚从一种解释运气和普遍生存不平等的鬼魂恐惧中摆脱出来。人类正在从鬼神导致厄运的羁绊中获得解放。不过,尽管人们正在放弃悲欢离合乃鬼神所致的错误教义,但他们却展现出了一种令人吃惊的意愿,去接受一种几近同样错误的教导,这力使他们把所有人的不平等归于政治不调、社会不公以及产业竞争。但新的立法、渐增的慈善事业,以及更多的产业重组,无论本身有多好,都无补于出身之事实和生活之多舛。只有对事实的充分理解以及在自然法则范围内的明智操作,才能使人得其所需、避其所恶。引向科学行为的科学知识,才是预防所谓意外灾祸的唯一解药。 |
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86:7.4 (956.7) Modern civilized races are just emerging from ghost fear as an explanation of luck and the commonplace inequalities of existence. Mankind is achieving emancipation from the bondage of the ghost-spirit explanation of ill luck. But while men are giving up the erroneous doctrine of a spirit cause of the vicissitudes of life, they exhibit a surprising willingness to accept an almost equally fallacious teaching which bids them attribute all human inequalities to political misadaptation, social injustice, and industrial competition. But new legislation, increasing philanthropy, and more industrial reorganization, however good in and of themselves, will not remedy the facts of birth and the accidents of living. Only comprehension of facts and wise manipulation within the laws of nature will enable man to get what he wants and to avoid what he does not want. Scientific knowledge, leading to scientific action, is the only antidote for so-called accidental ills. |
86:7.5 (957.1) 产业、战争、奴隶制和公民管理机构,是因应人类在其自然环境中的社会进化而出现的;宗教同样是作为其因应虚构性鬼神世界的虚幻环境而出现的。宗教曾是自我维持的一种进化发展,它起过好的作用,尽管它起初在观念方面是错误的,且是完全不合逻辑的。 |
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86:7.5 (957.1) Industry, war, slavery, and civil government arose in response to the social evolution of man in his natural environment; religion similarly arose as his response to the illusory environment of the imaginary ghost world. Religion was an evolutionary development of self-maintenance, and it has worked, notwithstanding that it was originally erroneous in concept and utterly illogical. |
86:7.6 (957.2) 原始宗教通过强大而令人敬畏的虚假恐惧力,为人类心智迎接思想调整者这一具有超自然来源的真正灵性力的降临准备好了土壤。而神性的思想调整者们自那以来便一直致力于将惧神转化为爱神。进化或许是缓慢的,但它却是可靠有效的。 |
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86:7.6 (957.2) Primitive religion prepared the soil of the human mind, by the powerful and awesome force of false fear, for the bestowal of a bona fide spiritual force of supernatural origin, the Thought Adjuster. And the divine Adjusters have ever since labored to transmute God-fear into God-love. Evolution may be slow, but it is unerringly effective. |
86:7.7 (957.3) [由内巴顿(Nebadon)的一位昏星所呈献。] |
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86:7.7 (957.3) [Presented by an Evening Star of Nebadon.] |