第58篇		Paper 58
玉苒厦(Urantia)上的生命创建		Life Establishment on Urantia
58:0.1 (664.1) 在整个撒旦尼亚(Satania)，只有六十一个与玉苒厦(Urantia)相似的世界，亦即生命改型类行星。大多数居住性世界，都是依照一些既定手段而住人的；在这些星球上，生命载运者们在其生命移植的计划中并未被给予多少余地。但在十个世界中约有一个会被指定为一个十进制行星，并被归属到生命载运者的专门登记册中；在这些星球上，我们会获允进行某些生命实验，以努力改进或是尽可能改善各种标准性的宇宙生命类型。		58:0.1 (664.1) IN ALL Satania there are only sixty-one worlds similar to Urantia, life-modification planets. The majority of inhabited worlds are peopled in accordance with established techniques; on such spheres the Life Carriers are afforded little leeway in their plans for life implantation. But about one world in ten is designated as a decimal planet and assigned to the special registry of the Life Carriers; and on such planets we are permitted to undertake certain life experiments in an effort to modify or possibly improve the standard universe types of living beings.
1. 物质生命的先决条件 ^top		1. Physical-Life Prerequisites ^top
58:1.1 (664.2) 600,000,000（六亿）年前，从耶路瑟姆(Jerusem)派出的生命载运者考察团抵达了玉苒厦(Urantia)，并开始了对各种物理状况的研究，以备在这一撒旦尼亚(Satania)系统第606号世界上创建生命。这是我们第六百零六次在撒旦尼亚当中引发内巴顿(Nebadon)生命模式的实验，也是我们在地方宇宙的基本性标准生命设计中做出改动和实行改型的第六十次机会。		58:1.1 (664.2) 600,000,000 years ago the commission of Life Carriers sent out from Jerusem arrived on Urantia and began the study of physical conditions preparatory to launching life on world number 606 of the Satania system. This was to be our six hundred and sixth experience with the initiation of the Nebadon life patterns in Satania and our sixtieth opportunity to make changes and institute modifications in the basic and standard life designs of the local universe.
58:1.2 (664.3) 要说清楚的是，在一个星球为进化性周期的开启做好准备之前，生命载运者们无法引发生命。我们也无法提供一个超出了该星球物理进程所能支持和容纳范围的更快生命发展。		58:1.2 (664.3) It should be made clear that Life Carriers cannot initiate life until a sphere is ripe for the inauguration of the evolutionary cycle. Neither can we provide for a more rapid life development than can be supported and accommodated by the physical progress of the planet.
58:1.3 (664.4) 撒旦尼亚(Satania)的生命载运者们设计了一个氯化钠类生命模式；因此在海水变得足够咸之前，无法采取任何步骤去培植它。只有在一种适当的盐溶液当中时，玉苒厦(Urantia)类型的原生质才能发挥作用。所有原始的生命 -- 包括植物和动物 -- 都是在一种盐溶液类栖息地中演化的。即便是更为高度组织化的陆地动物，若没有这种必需的盐溶液在它们体内的血液流动中循环，也无法继续生存下去。这种血液流动让每个微小的生命细胞充沛沐浴在、确切地说是浸泡在这一“盐水”中。		58:1.3 (664.4) The Satania Life Carriers had projected a sodium chloride pattern of life; therefore no steps could be taken toward planting it until the ocean waters had become sufficiently briny. The Urantia type of protoplasm can function only in a suitable salt solution. All ancestral life—vegetable and animal—evolved in a salt-solution habitat. And even the more highly organized land animals could not continue to live did not this same essential salt solution circulate throughout their bodies in the blood stream which freely bathes, literally submerses, every tiny living cell in this “briny deep.”
58:1.4 (664.5) 你们的原始祖先在含盐的海洋中纵情游弋；如今，这种似海洋般的含盐溶液又在你们的体内循环，以一种化学液体的方式浸润着每一个单个细胞，这种液体在所有必要方面都可与激发了最早生命细胞的最初原生质反应从而使其在星球上运作的盐水相比拟。		58:1.4 (664.5) Your primitive ancestors freely circulated about in the salty ocean; today, this same oceanlike salty solution freely circulates about in your bodies, bathing each individual cell with a chemical liquid in all essentials comparable to the salt water which stimulated the first protoplasmic reactions of the first living cells to function on the planet.
58:1.5 (664.6) 但在这一时代开启时，玉苒厦(Urantia)在各方面渐趋朝向一种有利于支持初始形态海洋生命的状态演化。地球及其邻近空间区域缓慢然却稳定的物理发展，逐渐为以后的那样一些生命形态的创建尝试准备好了舞台，我们已认定这些生命形态将是最适合于不断演变自然环境的，不管是在陆地上，还是在空间中。		58:1.5 (664.6) But as this era opens, Urantia is in every way evolving toward a state favorable for the support of the initial forms of marine life. Slowly but surely physical developments on earth and in adjacent space regions are preparing the stage for the later attempts to establish such life forms as we had decided would be best adapted to the unfolding physical environment—both terrestrial and spatial.
58:1.6 (665.1) 后来，撒旦尼亚(Satania)的生命载运者考察团返回了耶路瑟姆(Jerusem)，宁愿去等待大陆板块的进一步解体，以形成更多的内陆海及受掩蔽的海湾，然后再开始真正生命移植。		58:1.6 (665.1) Subsequently the Satania commission of Life Carriers returned to Jerusem, preferring to await the further breakup of the continental land mass, which would afford still more inland seas and sheltered bays, before actually beginning life implantation.
58:1.7 (665.2) 在一个生命有着海洋起源的星球上，适宜生命移植的理想条件是由大量内陆海以及具有浅水海域和受掩蔽海湾的宽广海岸线所提供的；而地球水域的这样一种分布正在快速发展着。这些古老的内陆海很少超过一百五十米或一百八十米深，而阳光可以穿透一百八十米以上深度的海水。		58:1.7 (665.2) On a planet where life has a marine origin the ideal conditions for life implantation are provided by a large number of inland seas, by an extensive shore line of shallow waters and sheltered bays; and just such a distribution of the earth’s waters was rapidly developing. These ancient inland seas were seldom over five or six hundred feet deep, and sunlight can penetrate ocean water for more than six hundred feet.
58:1.8 (665.3) 正是从这样一些在以后时代中具有温和宁静气候的海岸，原始植物生命找到了其通向陆地的方式。在那里，空气中高浓度的二氧化碳为各种新的陆地生命种类提供了快速繁盛生长的机会。虽然这种大气在当时对植物的生长是最为理想的，但它含有如此高浓度的二氧化碳，以致没有一种动物，更不用说人类，可以在这样的地面上生存。		58:1.8 (665.3) And it was from such seashores of the mild and equable climes of a later age that primitive plant life found its way onto the land. There the high degree of carbon in the atmosphere afforded the new land varieties of life opportunity for speedy and luxuriant growth. Though this atmosphere was then ideal for plant growth, it contained such a high degree of carbon dioxide that no animal, much less man, could have lived on the face of the earth.
2. 玉苒厦(Urantia)的大气层 ^top		2. The Urantia Atmosphere ^top
58:2.1 (665.4) 地球大气层会让太阳总体光照的大约二十亿分之一透至地面。如果降临在北美洲的光按两美分每千瓦时的比率予以付费的话，那么每年光费将会多于80亿亿美元。芝加哥一天的阳光费总计将大大超过1亿美元。应该记住，你们还从太阳那里接收了其他形式的能量 -- 光并不是抵达你们大气层的唯一太阳能贡献物。包含着人类视力识别范围以外波长的巨大太阳能，大量涌入到玉苒厦(Urantia)上。		58:2.1 (665.4) The planetary atmosphere filters through to the earth about one two-billionth of the sun’s total light emanation. If the light falling upon North America were paid for at the rate of two cents per kilowatt-hour, the annual light bill would be upward of 800 quadrillion dollars. Chicago’s bill for sunshine would amount to considerably over 100 million dollars a day. And it should be remembered that you receive from the sun other forms of energy—light is not the only solar contribution reaching your atmosphere. Vast solar energies pour in upon Urantia embracing wave lengths ranging both above and below the recognition range of human vision.
58:2.2 (665.5) 地球的大气层对于处在光谱中远紫外端的大多太阳辐射来说，几乎是不透明的。这种短波长辐射的大多数，都会被一个存在于地表上方大约十六千米、且向上空方向延伸另外十六千米的臭氧层所吸收。弥漫于这一区域的臭氧层，在地表所盛行的条件下，将仅会形成二点五毫米厚的一层；尽管如此，这一相对少量且看似浓度偏低的臭氧层，却会使玉苒厦(Urantia)居民免于受到阳光中所存的这些过量危险有害类紫外线辐射的伤害。但设若这一臭氧层再厚一点的话，你们就会被剥夺掉那些极为重要且有益健康的紫外线了，它们目前能到达地表，并会促进你们维他命中最为必要种类的生成。		58:2.2 (665.5) The earth’s atmosphere is all but opaque to much of the solar radiation at the extreme ultraviolet end of the spectrum. Most of these short wave lengths are absorbed by a layer of ozone which exists throughout a level about ten miles above the surface of the earth, and which extends spaceward for another ten miles. The ozone permeating this region, at conditions prevailing on the earth’s surface, would make a layer only one tenth of an inch thick; nevertheless, this relatively small and apparently insignificant amount of ozone protects Urantia inhabitants from the excess of these dangerous and destructive ultraviolet radiations present in sunlight. But were this ozone layer just a trifle thicker, you would be deprived of the highly important and health-giving ultraviolet rays which now reach the earth’s surface, and which are ancestral to one of the most essential of your vitamins.
58:2.3 (665.6) 然而，你们凡人中一些缺乏想象力的机械论者，坚持将物质世界和人类进化视为一种偶然。玉苒厦(Urantia)的中道者们收集了五万多个物理和化学方面的事实，他们认为这些事实与偶然可能性的法则是互不相容的，他们坚信这些事实清楚展示了物质世界中智能性意图的存在。而所有这一切还未考虑他们在物理、化学领域之外的十万多个发现编目，他们坚信这些发现证明了心智在物质宇宙的设计、创建及维护过程中的存在。		58:2.3 (665.6) And yet some of the less imaginative of your mortal mechanists insist on viewing material creation and human evolution as an accident. The Urantia midwayers have assembled over fifty thousand facts of physics and chemistry which they deem to be incompatible with the laws of accidental chance, and which they contend unmistakably demonstrate the presence of intelligent purpose in the material creation. And all of this takes no account of their catalogue of more than one hundred thousand findings outside the domain of physics and chemistry which they maintain prove the presence of mind in the planning, creation, and maintenance of the material cosmos.
58:2.4 (666.1) 你们太阳倾泻出大量致命的射线，而你们在玉苒厦(Urantia)上的舒适生活，是由于许多类似该臭氧层作用的、貌似偶然的保护性运行所产生的“偶然性”影响。		58:2.4 (666.1) Your sun pours forth a veritable flood of death-dealing rays, and your pleasant life on Urantia is due to the “fortuitous” influence of more than two-score apparently accidental protective operations similar to the action of this unique ozone layer.
58:2.5 (666.2) 若非由于大气层在夜间的“覆盖”效应，热量就会因辐射而快速丧失，以致除了人工供热以外，生命将无法维持下去。		58:2.5 (666.2) Were it not for the “blanketing” effect of the atmosphere at night, heat would be lost by radiation so rapidly that life would be impossible of maintenance except by artificial provision.
58:2.6 (666.3) 地球大气层中较为靠近地面的大约八至九公里半是对流层；这是一个造成气象的风和气流所在的区域。这一区域的上方是内电离层，再上方则是平流层。从地表向上升九公里半至十三公里，气温会平稳地下降，此高度气温大约为华氏零下70度（摄氏零下57度）。再进一步向上升六十五公里的范围内，温度约在华氏零下65度到70度（摄氏零下54度到57度）之间保持不变；这一恒温区被称为平流层。在离地七十二至八十公里的高度，气温又开始上升，一直持续到出现极光的层次，气温会达到华氏1200度（摄氏650度），正是这种高温会使氧气离子化。但如此稀薄大气当中的温度是很难与地表所计算的热度相提并论的。要记住，你们整个大气的一半存在于头五公里当中。地球大气层的高度是以其最高的极光带为标志的 -- 大约是六百四十公里。		58:2.6 (666.3) The lower five or six miles of the earth’s atmosphere is the troposphere; this is the region of winds and air currents which provide weather phenomena. Above this region is the inner ionosphere and next above is the stratosphere. Ascending from the surface of the earth, the temperature steadily falls for six or eight miles, at which height it registers around 70 degrees below zero F. This temperature range of from 65 to 70 degrees below zero F. is unchanged in the further ascent for forty miles; this realm of constant temperature is the stratosphere. At a height of forty-five or fifty miles, the temperature begins to rise, and this increase continues until, at the level of the auroral displays, a temperature of 1200° F. is attained, and it is this intense heat that ionizes the oxygen. But temperature in such a rarefied atmosphere is hardly comparable with heat reckoning at the surface of the earth. Bear in mind that one half of all your atmosphere is to be found in the first three miles. The height of the earth’s atmosphere is indicated by the highest auroral streamers—about four hundred miles.
58:2.7 (666.4) 极光现象与太阳黑子直接相关，那是一些在太阳赤道上下沿相反方向旋转的太阳气旋，就如地球上的热带飓风一样。这类大气扰动在赤道上下方发生时，会沿相反方向旋转。		58:2.7 (666.4) Auroral phenomena are directly related to sunspots, those solar cyclones which whirl in opposite directions above and below the solar equator, even as do the terrestrial tropical hurricanes. Such atmospheric disturbances whirl in opposite directions when occurring above or below the equator.
58:2.8 (666.5) 太阳黑子可以改变光线频率的能力，表明这些太阳风暴中心会起到巨大磁铁的作用。这些磁场能够将带电微粒从太阳黑子的喷口向外抛出，穿过太空而进入地球的外大气层，这些微粒的电离效应在那儿促成了如此壮观的极光展现。因此，在太阳黑子处于其高峰 -- 或是其后不久，你们就会欣赏到最超乎寻常的极光现象，此时黑子更为普遍地处于赤道附近。		58:2.8 (666.5) The power of sunspots to alter light frequencies shows that these solar storm centers function as enormous magnets. Such magnetic fields are able to hurl charged particles from the sunspot craters out through space to the earth’s outer atmosphere, where their ionizing influence produces such spectacular auroral displays. Therefore do you have the greatest auroral phenomena when sunspots are at their height—or soon thereafter—at which time the spots are more generally equatorially situated.
58:2.9 (666.6) 甚至连指南针也会对这一太阳影响做出回应，因为它会在太阳升起时略微往东偏移，而在太阳快要落山时略微往西偏移。这会每天都发生，但在太阳黑子周期的最高峰期间，指南针的这种偏移就会有往常两倍大。指南针的这些日际偏移，与上部大气层由太阳光造成的增强电离效应相回应。		58:2.9 (666.6) Even the compass needle is responsive to this solar influence since it turns slightly to the east as the sun rises and slightly to the west as the sun nears setting. This happens every day, but during the height of sunspot cycles this variation of the compass is twice as great. These diurnal wanderings of the compass are in response to the increased ionization of the upper atmosphere, which is produced by the sunlight.
58:2.10 (666.7) 正是超平流层当中两个不同层次导电区域的存在，才使得你们长短波无线电广播的远距离传输成为可能。你们的广播有时会被一些偶尔爆发在这些外电离层的可怕风暴所干扰。		58:2.10 (666.7) It is the presence of two different levels of electrified conducting regions in the superstratosphere that accounts for the long-distance transmission of your long- and short-wave radiobroadcasts. Your broadcasting is sometimes disturbed by the terrific storms which occasionally rage in the realms of these outer ionospheres.
3. 空间环境 ^top		3. Spatial Environment ^top
58:3.1 (666.8) 在宇宙物质化的早期，空间区域中散布着巨大的氢云团，就如目前许多遥远空间区域中所呈现的星尘团一样。炽热恒星瓦解掉而作为辐射能量散发出来的很多有组织物，最初都是在这些早期出现的空间类氢云团中聚合起来的。在某些异常情况下，在较大氢云团的核心处也会发生原子分裂。所有这些在高温星云中发生的原子积聚和原子分裂现象，都会伴随着大量带有辐射能量的短空间射线的出现。伴随这些多样辐射的，还有一种玉苒厦(Urantia)所未知的空间能量形式。		58:3.1 (666.8) During the earlier times of universe materialization the space regions are interspersed with vast hydrogen clouds, just such astronomic dust clusters as now characterize many regions throughout remote space. Much of the organized matter which the blazing suns break down and disperse as radiant energy was originally built up in these early appearing hydrogen clouds of space. Under certain unusual conditions atom disruption also occurs at the nucleus of the larger hydrogen masses. And all of these phenomena of atom building and atom dissolution, as in the highly heated nebulae, are attended by the emergence of flood tides of short space rays of radiant energy. Accompanying these diverse radiations is a form of space-energy unknown on Urantia.
58:3.2 (667.1) 宇宙空间中的这种短射线类能荷，要比存在于组织化空间区域中所有其他形式的辐射能量大四百倍。短空间射线的输出，不管是来自炽热星云、张紧电场、外部空间，还是来自巨大氢云团，都会因温度、引力和电压方面的波动以及突发张力变动而在质和量上有所改动。		58:3.2 (667.1) This short-ray energy charge of universe space is four hundred times greater than all other forms of radiant energy existing in the organized space domains. The output of short space rays, whether coming from the blazing nebulae, tense electric fields, outer space, or the vast hydrogen dust clouds, is modified qualitatively and quantitatively by fluctuations of, and sudden tension changes in, temperature, gravity, and electronic pressures.
58:3.3 (667.2) 空间射线起源方面的这些终归性，是由众多宇宙偶发事件及循环物质的轨道所决定的，这些轨道从改型的圆形变化到极度的椭圆形。物理状况也会得以极大的改变，因为即便是在同一物理区域内，电子自旋常常会与更主体物质的旋转方向相反。		58:3.3 (667.2) These eventualities in the origin of the space rays are determined by many cosmic occurrences as well as by the orbits of circulating matter, which vary from modified circles to extreme ellipses. Physical conditions may also be greatly altered because the electron spin is sometimes in the opposite direction from that of the grosser matter behavior, even in the same physical zone.
58:3.4 (667.3) 巨大的氢云团是名副其实的宇宙化学实验室，容纳着所有阶段的演化能量和变形物质。巨大的能量活动也会发生在巨大双星系统的边缘气体中，这些气体如此频繁地交迭，因此会广泛地混合在一起。但这些巨大而又广布的空间类能量活动，都不会对有组织的生命现象 -- 即生物和存有们的种质施加任何影响。这些空间类能量状况与创建生命所需的环境有着密切关系，但在种质遗传因子的随后改变方面，它们不如一些具有辐射能的较长射线那样有效。生命载运者所培植的生命，对于所有这一切具有宇宙能量的短空间射线之大量涌入有着完全的抵抗力。		58:3.4 (667.3) The vast hydrogen clouds are veritable cosmic chemical laboratories, harboring all phases of evolving energy and metamorphosing matter. Great energy actions also occur in the marginal gases of the great binary stars which so frequently overlap and hence extensively commingle. But none of these tremendous and far-flung energy activities of space exerts the least influence upon the phenomena of organized life—the germ plasm of living things and beings. These energy conditions of space are germane to the essential environment of life establishment, but they are not effective in the subsequent modification of the inheritance factors of the germ plasm as are some of the longer rays of radiant energy. The implanted life of the Life Carriers is fully resistant to all of this amazing flood of the short space rays of universe energy.
58:3.5 (667.4) 在生命载运者们能够真正开始在玉苒厦(Urantia)上创建生命之前，所有这些必要的宇宙条件都必须要演化到一种较为有利的状态。		58:3.5 (667.4) All of these essential cosmic conditions had to evolve to a favorable status before the Life Carriers could actually begin the establishment of life on Urantia.
4. 生命发端的时代 ^top		4. The Life-Dawn Era ^top
58:4.1 (667.5) 我们被称做“生命载运者”这一事实应该不会使你们感到困扰。我们能够、也的确会将生命载运到各个星球上，但我们并未给玉苒厦(Urantia)带来任何生命。玉苒厦的生命是这个行星所独有的、原创的。这个星球是一个生命改型类世界；所有在这儿出现的生命，都是由我们在这个行星上所配制的；在整个撒旦尼亚(Satania)，甚至是在整个内巴顿(Nebadon)当中，没有任何一个其他世界拥有像玉苒厦上这样的生命存在。		58:4.1 (667.5) That we are called Life Carriers should not confuse you. We can and do carry life to the planets, but we brought no life to Urantia. Urantia life is unique, original with the planet. This sphere is a life-modification world; all life appearing hereon was formulated by us right here on the planet; and there is no other world in all Satania, even in all Nebadon, that has a life existence just like that of Urantia.
58:4.2 (667.6) 550,000,000（五亿五千万）年前，生命载运者团队返回了玉苒厦(Urantia)。在各种灵性力量和超物质力的配合下，我们组织并引发了这个世界的最初生命模式，并将它们安置在这个世界的适宜水域中。迄至行星君王卡里迦夏(Caligastia)时代的所有行星生命（除了本行星之外的人格体们），都起源于我们三大最初的、同样的且同时存在的海洋生命移植地。这三大生命移植地被指定为：中央的欧亚非区；东方的大洋洲区，以及包含格陵兰和美洲的西方区。		58:4.2 (667.6) 550,000,000 years ago the Life Carrier corps returned to Urantia. In co-operation with spiritual powers and superphysical forces we organized and initiated the original life patterns of this world and planted them in the hospitable waters of the realm. All planetary life (aside from extraplanetary personalities) down to the days of Caligastia, the Planetary Prince, had its origin in our three original, identical, and simultaneous marine-life implantations. These three life implantations have been designated as: the central or Eurasian-African, the eastern or Australasian, and the western, embracing Greenland and the Americas.
58:4.3 (668.1) 500,000,000（五亿）年前，原始海洋植物生命在玉苒厦(Urantia)上颇具规模了。格陵兰和北极板块，与南、北美洲一起，开始了其漫长而又缓慢的西向漂移。非洲略微往南漂移，在它自身与原来母体之间形成了一个东西向海槽，亦即地中海。南极洲、澳大利亚以及太平洋诸岛所对应的陆地，从东南部分裂出去，从此各自漂向远方。		58:4.3 (668.1) 500,000,000 years ago primitive marine vegetable life was well established on Urantia. Greenland and the arctic land mass, together with North and South America, were beginning their long and slow westward drift. Africa moved slightly south, creating an east and west trough, the Mediterranean basin, between itself and the mother body. Antarctica, Australia, and the land indicated by the islands of the Pacific broke away on the south and east and have drifted far away since that day.
58:4.4 (668.2) 我们将原始形态的海洋生命，放置在渐趋分开的大陆板块东西向裂隙所在中央海域的受掩蔽热带海湾中。我们建造这三大海洋生命移植地的目的，是为了确保陆地在以后分开时，每个大陆板块都会将其温暖海域中的这种生命一同带走。我们预见到，在后来出现陆地生命的时代，各个大洋水域将会把这些漂移的陆地板块分开。		58:4.4 (668.2) We had planted the primitive form of marine life in the sheltered tropic bays of the central seas of the east-west cleavage of the breaking-up continental land mass. Our purpose in making three marine-life implantations was to insure that each great land mass would carry this life with it, in its warm-water seas, as the land subsequently separated. We foresaw that in the later era of the emergence of land life large oceans of water would separate these drifting continental land masses.
5. 大陆漂移 ^top		5. The Continental Drift ^top
58:5.1 (668.3) 大陆漂移持续不断。由于受到每平方英寸近25,000吨（即每平方厘米近3,500吨）的压力，以及由于巨大的重力压力，地心变得像钢铁般致密坚硬，在其内部深处始终是非常炽热的。温度从地表往下一直升高，到地心处的温度，比太阳表面的温度还要略高一些。		58:5.1 (668.3) The continental land drift continued. The earth’s core had become as dense and rigid as steel, being subjected to a pressure of almost 25,000 tons to the square inch, and owing to the enormous gravity pressure, it was and still is very hot in the deep interior. The temperature increases from the surface downward until at the center it is slightly above the surface temperature of the sun.
58:5.2 (668.4) 地球外部一千六百公里厚的一层，主要由不同种类的岩石组成。其下是更为致密厚重的金属元素。在早期大气层形成之前，整个世界几乎处于熔融的液体状态和高温状态之下，因此较重的金属便下沉到内部。今天在接近地表处发现的那些金属，代表着古代火山的流出物、后来大面积的熔岩流，以及更为近来的流星沉淀物。		58:5.2 (668.4) The outer one thousand miles of the earth’s mass consists principally of different kinds of rock. Underneath are the denser and heavier metallic elements. Throughout the early and preatmospheric ages the world was so nearly fluid in its molten and highly heated state that the heavier metals sank deep into the interior. Those found near the surface today represent the exudate of ancient volcanoes, later and extensive lava flows, and the more recent meteoric deposits.
58:5.3 (668.5) 外部地壳约有六十五公里厚。这一外壳由一层厚度不一的熔融玄武岩所支撑并直接悬浮其上，这是一个处于高压之下的可流动熔岩层，但它总是易于四处流动，以平衡游移不定的地球压力，从而使地壳保持稳定状态。		58:5.3 (668.5) The outer crust was about forty miles thick. This outer shell was supported by, and rested directly upon, a molten sea of basalt of varying thickness, a mobile layer of molten lava held under high pressure but always tending to flow hither and yon in equalization of shifting planetary pressures, thereby tending to stabilize the earth’s crust.
58:5.4 (668.6) 甚至在今天，各个大陆仍继续在这层未结晶化的柔软玄武岩熔浆上漂浮。若没有这种保护性条件，更为剧烈的地震差不多会将这个世界震得四分五裂。地震是由固态外壳的滑动和移位造成的，而不是由火山造成的。		58:5.4 (668.6) Even today the continents continue to float upon this noncrystallized cushiony sea of molten basalt. Were it not for this protective condition, the more severe earthquakes would literally shake the world to pieces. Earthquakes are caused by sliding and shifting of the solid outer crust and not by volcanoes.
58:5.5 (668.7) 地壳的熔岩层冷却时，便会形成花岗岩。玉苒厦(Urantia)的平均密度是水密度的五倍半多一点；花岗岩的密度是水密度的三倍少一点。地心的密度是水密度的十二倍。		58:5.5 (668.7) The lava layers of the earth’s crust, when cooled, form granite. The average density of Urantia is a little more than five and one-half times that of water; the density of granite is less than three times that of water. The earth’s core is twelve times as dense as water.
58:5.6 (668.8) 海底比大陆更为稠密，这样使得大陆保持在海面以上。当海底被挤出海平面时，可以发现它们主要是由玄武岩所构成，即一些比构成陆地板块的花岗岩重得多的熔岩形式。此外，如果大陆不比海底轻的话，那么重力将会把海洋的边缘拉抬到陆地之上，但这种现象未被观察到。		58:5.6 (668.8) The sea bottoms are more dense than the land masses, and this is what keeps the continents above water. When the sea bottoms are extruded above the sea level, they are found to consist largely of basalt, a form of lava considerably heavier than the granite of the land masses. Again, if the continents were not lighter than the ocean beds, gravity would draw the edges of the oceans up onto the land, but such phenomena are not observable.
58:5.7 (668.9) 海洋的重量也是海底压力加大的一个因素。较低但却相对较重的海底，加上其上海水的重量，接近于较高但却要轻得多的大陆的重量。但所有大陆都有滑入海洋的趋势。大陆在海底水平处的压强大约为每平方英寸20,000磅（即每平方厘米1,400千克）。也就是说，这相当于高出海底15,000英尺（即5,000米）的大陆板块所产生的压强。而海底的水压只有大约每平方英寸5,000磅（即每平方厘米350千克）。这种压强差易于导致大陆滑向海底。		58:5.7 (668.9) The weight of the oceans is also a factor in the increase of pressure on the sea beds. The lower but comparatively heavier ocean beds, plus the weight of the overlying water, approximate the weight of the higher but much lighter continents. But all continents tend to creep into the oceans. The continental pressure at ocean-bottom levels is about 20,000 pounds to the square inch. That is, this would be the pressure of a continental mass standing 15,000 feet above the ocean floor. The ocean-floor water pressure is only about 5,000 pounds to the square inch. These differential pressures tend to cause the continents to slide toward the ocean beds.
58:5.8 (669.1) 在前生命时代期间，海底的凹陷曾将一块单独的陆地板块向上推举到这样一个高度，以致大陆的侧向压力导致了其东部、西部及南部边沿向下滑降，穿过下面的半粘性熔岩床而坠入到周围的太平洋水域中。这全面抵消了陆地的压力，使得这一古老亚洲大陆的东海岸没有发生大面积的分裂，但从那以后，那一东海岸线就悬停在其邻近海底悬崖的上方，随时有可能滑入水底。		58:5.8 (669.1) Depression of the ocean bottom during the prelife ages had upthrust a solitary continental land mass to such a height that its lateral pressure tended to cause the eastern, western, and southern fringes to slide downhill, over the underlying semiviscous lava beds, into the waters of the surrounding Pacific Ocean. This so fully compensated the continental pressure that a wide break did not occur on the eastern shore of this ancient Asiatic continent, but ever since has that eastern coast line hovered over the precipice of its adjoining oceanic depths, threatening to slide into a watery grave.
6. 过渡时期 ^top		6. The Transition Period ^top
58:6.1 (669.2) 450,000,000（四亿五千万）年前，发生了植物生命向动物生命的过渡。这种变化发生在受掩蔽的热带海湾浅水当中，以及渐趋分开的大陆间广阔海岸线所围出的泻湖中。固有于原初生命模式当中的所有这一切发展，都是逐步发生的。在早期的原始植物生命形态和后来界限清晰的动物有机体之间，存在着许多过渡阶段。即便是如今，还存在着过渡类粘液菌，它们很难被归类为植物或者动物。		58:6.1 (669.2) 450,000,000 years ago the transition from vegetable to animal life occurred. This metamorphosis took place in the shallow waters of the sheltered tropic bays and lagoons of the extensive shore lines of the separating continents. And this development, all of which was inherent in the original life patterns, came about gradually. There were many transitional stages between the early primitive vegetable forms of life and the later well-defined animal organisms. Even today the transition slime molds persist, and they can hardly be classified either as plants or as animals.
58:6.2 (669.3) 尽管植物生命的演化可被沿用到动物生命当中，尽管也已发现了许多从最为简单的有机体逐步导向最为复杂先进之有机体的动植物递进序列，但在动物王国各种大的分类之间，以及在各种最高级的类人动物与人类种族的先人之间，你们都无法找出这种衔接的环节。这些所谓的“缺失环节”将会永远保持缺失，原因很简单，它们从未存在过。		58:6.2 (669.3) Although the evolution of vegetable life can be traced into animal life, and though there have been found graduated series of plants and animals which progressively lead up from the most simple to the most complex and advanced organisms, you will not be able to find such connecting links between the great divisions of the animal kingdom nor between the highest of the prehuman animal types and the dawn men of the human races. These so-called “missing links” will forever remain missing, for the simple reason that they never existed.
58:6.3 (669.4) 每个时代都会有全新的动物生命种类产生。它们并非作为微小变化的逐渐积聚之结果而演化；它们会作为成熟的新生命类别而出现，而且它们会突然出现。		58:6.3 (669.4) From era to era radically new species of animal life arise. They do not evolve as the result of the gradual accumulation of small variations; they appear as full-fledged and new orders of life, and they appear suddenly.
58:6.4 (669.5) 诸多新物种的突然出现和生命有机体的多样类别，完全是生物性的，严格来说是自燃性的。这些基因变异没有牵涉到任何超自然的东西。		58:6.4 (669.5) The sudden appearance of new species and diversified orders of living organisms is wholly biologic, strictly natural. There is nothing supernatural connected with these genetic mutations.
58:6.5 (669.6) 动物在海洋的适当盐度中不断演化，让盐水在海洋生命类动物的体内循环是相对简单的。但当海洋得以收缩，且盐分的比例得以极大增加时，这些动物就演化出了一种减少自身体液盐度的能力，正如那些学会了在淡水中生活的有机体，通过巧妙的盐分保持手段获得了保持其体液内适度氯化钠的能力一样。		58:6.5 (669.6) At the proper degree of saltiness in the oceans animal life evolved, and it was comparatively simple to allow the briny waters to circulate through the animal bodies of marine life. But when the oceans were contracted and the percentage of salt was greatly increased, these same animals evolved the ability to reduce the saltiness of their body fluids just as those organisms which learned to live in fresh water acquired the ability to maintain the proper degree of sodium chloride in their body fluids by ingenious techniques of salt conservation.
58:6.6 (669.7) 对岩石中包含的海洋生命化石的研究，表明了这些原始有机体的早期调整努力。动植物从未停止过做出这些调整的实验。只要环境不断变化，生命有机体就会一直努力令自身适应这些不断的波动。		58:6.6 (669.7) Study of the rock-embraced fossils of marine life reveals the early adjustment struggles of these primitive organisms. Plants and animals never cease to make these adjustment experiments. Ever the environment is changing, and always are living organisms striving to accommodate themselves to these never-ending fluctuations.
58:6.7 (670.1) 所有新生命类别的生理配置和解剖结构，都会对自然法则的作用有所响应，但随后的心智赋予却是辅助心智之灵们依据先天的脑容量而做出的一种赐予。心智，尽管不是一种自然演化物，但却是完全有赖于纯自然演化发展而获得的脑容量。		58:6.7 (670.1) The physiologic equipment and the anatomic structure of all new orders of life are in response to the action of physical law, but the subsequent endowment of mind is a bestowal of the adjutant mind-spirits in accordance with innate brain capacity. Mind, while not a physical evolution, is wholly dependent on the brain capacity afforded by purely physical and evolutionary developments.
58:6.8 (670.2) 通过近乎无尽的得失、调整与再调整循环，所有生命有机体都随着各个时代而回环往复。那些达到了宇宙统一性的会持续下去，而那些未达到这一目标的则停止了存在。		58:6.8 (670.2) Through almost endless cycles of gains and losses, adjustments and readjustments, all living organisms swing back and forth from age to age. Those that attain cosmic unity persist, while those that fall short of this goal cease to exist.
7. 地质史书 ^top		7. The Geologic History Book ^top
58:7.1 (670.3) 在生命发端的原生代期间构成了地球外壳的庞大岩石系统群，现在在地表的许多地方都不再出现了。而当它从其所有后继时代的沉淀物之下出现时，则只能发现植物和早期原始动物生命的化石存留。这些较古老的水积岩当中某些会与后来的岩层相迭合，它们常常会包含一些较早期植物生命形式的化石存留，而在最顶层则会偶尔会发现一些更为原始的、早期海洋动物有机体形式的化石存留。在许多地方，可以直接在一些较古老的不起眼石头上面，发现这些带有早期海洋动植物生命化石的最古老层叠岩层。		58:7.1 (670.3) The vast group of rock systems which constituted the outer crust of the world during the life-dawn or Proterozoic era does not now appear at many points on the earth’s surface. And when it does emerge from below all the accumulations of subsequent ages, there will be found only the fossil remains of vegetable and early primitive animal life. Some of these older water-deposited rocks are commingled with subsequent layers, and sometimes they yield fossil remains of some of the earlier forms of vegetable life, while on the topmost layers occasionally may be found some of the more primitive forms of the early marine-animal organisms. In many places these oldest stratified rock layers, bearing the fossils of the early marine life, both animal and vegetable, may be found directly on top of the older undifferentiated stone.
58:7.2 (670.4) 这个时代的化石包括海藻、珊瑚状植物、原始的原生动物，以及许多呈海绵状的过渡性有机体。但这些化石在早期岩层中的缺失，并不一定证明相应生物在那些岩层累积期间未在别处存在过。在这些早期时代期间，生命是非常稀少的，而且是缓慢出现在地表的。		58:7.2 (670.4) Fossils of this era yield algae, corallike plants, primitive Protozoa, and spongelike transition organisms. But the absence of such fossils in the early rock layers does not necessarily prove that living things were not elsewhere in existence at the time of their deposition. Life was sparse throughout these early times and only slowly made its way over the face of the earth.
58:7.3 (670.5) 这一古老时代的岩石目前就在地表，或是非常接近于地表，大约有现在陆地面积的八分之一多。这一过渡类岩石，即这一最为古老的层叠岩层的平均厚度，约为两千五百米。在有些地方，这些古代岩石体系差不多有六千五百米厚，但许多被归为这一时代的岩层却属于后来的时期。		58:7.3 (670.5) The rocks of this olden age are now at the earth’s surface, or very near the surface, over about one eighth of the present land area. The average thickness of this transition stone, the oldest stratified rock layers, is about one and one-half miles. At some points these ancient rock systems are as much as four miles thick, but many of the layers which have been ascribed to this era belong to later periods.
58:7.4 (670.6) 在北美洲，这一带有化石的古老原始岩层出现在加拿大的东部、中部和北部地区。这一岩层还有一条断断续续的东西走向山脉，从宾夕法尼亚州和古老的阿第伦达克山系向西延伸到密执根州、威斯康星州和明尼苏达州。还有其他山脉从纽芬兰延伸到阿拉巴马州，从阿拉斯加州延伸到墨西哥。		58:7.4 (670.6) In North America this ancient and primitive fossil-bearing stone layer comes to the surface over the eastern, central, and northern regions of Canada. There is also an intermittent east-west ridge of this rock which extends from Pennsylvania and the ancient Adirondack Mountains on west through Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Other ridges run from Newfoundland to Alabama and from Alaska to Mexico.
58:7.5 (670.7) 这个时代的岩石在全世界各地都有呈现，但没有任何地方会像苏必略湖周边及科罗拉多河大峡谷中的岩石那样使人一目了然，这些含化石的原始岩石存在于几个岩层当中，证实了那些久远时代的诸多地壳隆起及地表波动。		58:7.5 (670.7) The rocks of this era are exposed here and there all over the world, but none are so easy of interpretation as those about Lake Superior and in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, where these primitive fossil-bearing rocks, existing in several layers, testify to the upheavals and surface fluctuations of those faraway times.
58:7.6 (670.8) 作为地震和早期火山剧变的一个结果，这一在地壳中含化石的最古老岩石层，已被褶皱、折叠及怪异扭曲了。这一时代的熔岩流将许多铁、铜和铅带到了接近地球表面的地方。		58:7.6 (670.8) This stone layer, the oldest fossil-bearing stratum in the crust of the earth, has been crumpled, folded, and grotesquely twisted as a result of the upheavals of earthquakes and the early volcanoes. The lava flows of this age brought much iron, copper, and lead up near the planetary surface.
58:7.7 (670.9) 在地球上，很少有地方会像威斯康星州的圣克罗伊谷地那样更为生动地展示出这种活动了。在这一地区，曾发生过一百二十七次连续的地表熔岩流，伴着随后的洪水淹没及随即发生的岩石沉积。尽管大多上层岩石沉积和间歇的熔岩流今天都不复存在了，尽管这一体系的底层已被深埋入地下，但现在仍大约有六十五至七十处这些过去时代的岩层记录显而易见。		58:7.7 (670.9) There are few places on the earth where such activities are more graphically shown than in the St. Croix valley of Wisconsin. In this region there occurred one hundred and twenty-seven successive lava flows on land with succeeding water submergence and consequent rock deposition. Although much of the upper rock sedimentation and intermittent lava flow is absent today, and though the bottom of this system is buried deep in the earth, nevertheless, about sixty-five or seventy of these stratified records of past ages are now exposed to view.
58:7.8 (671.1) 在这些早期时代中，当大多陆地接近于海平面时，曾发生过许多次连续的沉降和上浮。地壳在逐渐进入其相对稳定的后期阶段。较早期陆地漂移时的波动起伏，曾造成过大陆地板块的频繁周期性沉没。		58:7.8 (671.1) In these early ages when much land was near sea level, there occurred many successive submergences and emergences. The earth’s crust was just entering upon its later period of comparative stabilization. The undulations, rises and dips, of the earlier continental drift contributed to the frequency of the periodic submergence of the great land masses.
58:7.9 (671.2) 在这些具有原始类海洋生命的时期，大陆海岸的广泛区域沉入海洋几英尺到半英里不等。许多较古老的沙岩和砾岩便代表着这些古老海岸陆地的沉淀积聚物。属于这一早期分层的沉积岩，直接堆积在那些追溯到生命远未起源之前的岩层上，即追溯至世界性海洋的刚出现时代。		58:7.9 (671.2) During these times of primitive marine life, extensive areas of the continental shores sank beneath the seas from a few feet to half a mile. Much of the older sandstone and conglomerates represents the sedimentary accumulations of these ancient shores. The sedimentary rocks belonging to this early stratification rest directly upon those layers which date back far beyond the origin of life, back to the early appearance of the world-wide ocean.
58:7.10 (671.3) 这些过渡期岩石沉积物最上面的若干层，包含了少量深颜色的页岩或石板，这表明有机碳的存在，也证实了那些在后来石炭纪或是煤炭时代蔓布地球的植物生命形式之先祖的存在。这些岩石层中的大多铜都来自于水的沉积物。有些铜存在于较古老岩石的裂缝中，是某些远古受掩蔽海岸线的恬缓沼泽水的浓缩物。北美洲和欧洲的铁矿都位于一些沉积物和喷出物当中，它们部分存在于那些较古老的非层叠岩石中，部分存在于这些后来包含过渡期生命形式的层叠岩中。		58:7.10 (671.3) Some of the upper layers of these transition rock deposits contain small amounts of shale or slate of dark colors, indicating the presence of organic carbon and testifying to the existence of the ancestors of those forms of plant life which overran the earth during the succeeding Carboniferous or coal age. Much of the copper in these rock layers results from water deposition. Some is found in the cracks of the older rocks and is the concentrate of the sluggish swamp water of some ancient sheltered shore line. The iron mines of North America and Europe are located in deposits and extrusions lying partly in the older unstratified rocks and partly in these later stratified rocks of the transition periods of life formation.
58:7.11 (671.4) 这一时代见证了生命在整个世界水域中的传播；海洋生命在玉苒厦(Urantia)上已变得颇具规模。浅层而广阔的内陆海底，逐渐被许多生长繁盛的植物所占领，而海岸线的水域则群集着各种简单的动物生命形式。		58:7.11 (671.4) This era witnesses the spread of life throughout the waters of the world; marine life has become well established on Urantia. The bottoms of the shallow and extensive inland seas are being gradually overrun by a profuse and luxuriant growth of vegetation, while the shore-line waters are swarming with the simple forms of animal life.
58:7.12 (671.5) 这一故事的所有内容，都会在拥有世界记录的巨大 “岩石书册” 的化石书页中被生动地讲述出来。这一庞大的生物地质记录会可靠地讲述出真相，只要你们获得了其解读方面的技巧。这些古老海床中现在有许多都被抬升到陆地之上了，它们累代的沉积物会讲述出那些早期时代生命奋斗的故事。这完全是真实的，一如你们诗人（拜伦）所说：“我们所踩踏过的尘土，也曾是有生气的。”		58:7.12 (671.5) All of this story is graphically told within the fossil pages of the vast “stone book” of world record. And the pages of this gigantic biogeologic record unfailingly tell the truth if you but acquire skill in their interpretation. Many of these ancient sea beds are now elevated high upon land, and their deposits of age upon age tell the story of the life struggles of those early days. It is literally true, as your poet has said, “The dust we tread upon was once alive.”
58:7.13 (671.6) [由此时常驻该行星的玉苒厦(Urantia)生命载运者团队之一员所呈献。]		58:7.13 (671.6) [Presented by a member of the Urantia Life Carrier Corps now resident on the planet.]