没有神的生活——无神论的含义

没有神的生活——无神论的含义 - 神圣的实相 | Quran Course

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没有神的生活——无神论的含义

Life Without God – The Implications Of Atheism

by By Hamza Andreas Tzortzis10 min readViewed 53 times

无神论并非存在于真空之中的思想立场。如果它的主张为真,那么人们就不得不接受一些不可避免的存在性与逻辑性结论,而这些结论是非常黯淡的。在无神论之下,生命是荒谬可笑的。下面的讨论也许不能提供一个关于真主存在的理性论证,也不能仅因没有真主的生活显得荒谬,就推出真主存在。然而,它确实提供了一片肥沃的土壤,本书中的理性论证正是在这片土壤中扎根生长的。

Atheism is not an intellectual position that exists in a bubble. If its claims are true, then one would have to make some inevitable existential and logical conclusions that are very bleak. Under atheism, life is ludicrous. The following discussion may not provide a rational case for God, nor does it follow that God exists simply because life without God seems absurd. However, it does provide the fertile ground in which the rational arguments in this book take root.

正如第一章所讨论的，大多数无神论者都是哲学自然主义者，他们认为不存在超自然的事物，宇宙中的一切都可以用物理过程来解释。无神论与哲学自然主义相结合，便是一剂通往存在主义灾难的良方。其公式很简单：没有真主，连同与之相关的神圣清算等观念，就等于没有终极的希望、价值与目的。它同样导致无法获得永恒而有意义的幸福。

As discussed in Chapter 1, most atheists are philosophical naturalists who hold that there is no supernatural and everything in the universe can be explained in reference to physical processes. Atheism combined with philosophical naturalism is a recipe for existential disaster. The formula is simple: no God, which includes the associated concepts of Divine accountability, equals no ultimate hope, value and purpose. It also leads to no eternal and meaningful happiness.

希望被定义为对某件事情发生的感觉、期待与渴望。我们都希望拥有美好的生活、健康的身体和好的工作。归根结底，我们都希望获得不朽而极乐的存在。生命是如此神奇的恩赐，以至于没有人真正希望自己的意识存在就此终结。同样，每个人都期望会有某种形式的终极公正，使错误得以纠正，相关之人得到问责。值得注意的是，如果我们的生活悲惨，或经历痛苦与苦难，我们便希望获得某种平安、喜乐与安宁。这正是人类精神的体现：我们希望在黑暗隧道的尽头看到光明，而如果我们拥有了宁静与喜悦，我们便希望它永远持续下去。由于无神论否认神圣与超自然的存在，它也就拒绝后世的概念。没有后世，便无法指望苦难之后会有喜乐。因此，我们对生命结束之后会有积极事情发生的期待也就失去了。在无神论之下，我们无法期待在人生这条黑暗隧道的尽头有任何光明。试想一下，你出生在第三世界，一生都在饥饿与贫困中度过。按照无神论的世界观，你注定只能走向死亡。与此相对，伊斯兰的观点是：我们生命中发生的一切苦难，都有其更大的益处。因此，从更宏观的角度看，我们所承受的任何痛苦与磨难都不是毫无意义的。真主知晓我们所有的苦难，并将给予报偿（见第11章）。然而，按照无神论，我们的痛苦与我们的快乐一样毫无意义。有德之人的巨大牺牲和受害者的痛苦，不过是冷漠世界中一串倒下的多米诺骨牌。它们的发生没有更大的益处，也没有更高的目的。既没有后世的终极希望，也没有任何形式的幸福。即使我们过着享乐和极度奢华的生活,我们大多数人仍不可避免地会陷入某种形式的厄运,或是对更多享乐的无休止渴望。悲观主义哲学家阿图尔·叔本华恰如其分地描述了那种绝望以及等待着我们的厄运:

Hope is defined as the feeling or expectation and desire for something to happen. We all hope for good lives, good health and a good job. Ultimately, we all hope for an immortal blissful existence. Life is such an amazing gift that no one really wants his or her conscious existence to end. Similarly, everyone desires that there will be some form of ultimate justice where wrongs are made right, and the relevant people will be held accountable. Significantly, if our lives are miserable, or experience pain and suffering, we hope for some peace, pleasure and ease. This is a reflection of the human spirit; we hope for light at the end of the dark tunnel, and if we have tranquillity and joy, we want to keep it that way. Since atheism denies the Divine and the supernatural, it also rejects the concept of an afterlife. Without that, there can be no hope of pleasure following a life of pain. Therefore, the expectation for something positive to happen after our lives is lost. Under atheism we cannot expect any light at the end of the dark tunnel of our existence. Imagine you were born in the third world and spent your whole life in starvation and poverty. According to the atheist worldview, you are merely destined for death. Contrast this with the Islamic perspective: all instances of suffering that happen in our lives are for some greater good. Therefore, in the larger scheme of things, no pain or suffering we undergo is meaningless. God is aware of all our sufferings, and He will provide recompense (see Chapter 11). According to atheism, however, our pains are as meaningless as our pleasure. The immense sacrifices of the virtuous and the distress of the victim are falling dominoes in an indifferent world. They occur for no greater good and no higher purpose. There is no ultimate hope of an afterlife or any form of happiness. Even if we lived a life of pleasure and immense luxuries, most of us would inevitably be doomed to some form of evil fate or an incessant desire for more pleasure. The pessimist philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer aptly described the hopelessness and ill fate that awaits us:

“我们就像田野里的羔羊，在屠夫的注视下嬉戏，而他一个接一个地挑选自己的猎物。同样，在我们的好日子里，我们都不知道命运即将为我们安排怎样的厄运——疾病、贫困、残疾、失明或失去理智……存在之苦的很大一部分正在于此：时间不断地逼迫着我们，从不让我们喘息，而总是像拿着鞭子的监工一样紧紧追赶。如果时间在某一刻停下了它的手，那也只是因为我们被交付给了无聊的痛苦……事实上，认为世界和人类本不该存在的信念，会使我们彼此宽容。不仅如此，从这一角度看，我们甚至可以认为恰当的称呼不是 Monsieur、Sir、mein Herr，而是“我的同受苦难者”，Socî malorum，compagnon de miseres！”《古兰经》也提到了这种绝望。它指出，信士不能绝望；希望始终存在，而希望与真主的慈悯相连，真主的慈悯将在今世和后世显现：“除不信道的人外，没有人对真主的慈悯感到绝望。”42

“We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey. So it is that in our good days we are all unconscious of the evil fate may have presently in store for us—sickness, poverty, mutilation, loss of sight or reason… No little part of the torment of existence lies in this, that Time is continually pressing upon us, never letting us take breath, but always coming after us, like a taskmaster with a whip. If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the misery of boredom… In fact, the conviction that the world and man is something that had better not have been, is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another. Nay, from this point of view, we might well consider the proper form of address to be, not Monsieur, Sir, mein Herr, but my fellow-sufferer, Socî malorum, compagnon de miseres!” The Qur’an alludes to this hopelessness. It argues that a believer cannot despair; there will always be hope, and hope is connected to God’s mercy, and God’s mercy will manifest itself in this life and the hereafter: “Certainly no one despairs of God’s Mercy, except the people who disbelieve.”42

然而，在伊斯兰教中，敬拜真主、并且慈悲、诚实、公正、善良、宽恕的人，其终局与那些坚持作恶之人的终局形成对照。善人的居所是永恒的喜乐，恶人的居所则是与主的疏离。这种疏离是有意否认真主的慈悲与引导的结果，必然导致精神上的痛苦与煎熬。显然，伊斯兰教赋予了我们终极的价值。然而，在无神论之下，价值除了作为我们头脑中的一种幻觉之外，无法得到理性的证成。尽管这一论证很有力，仍有一些无神论者提出反对。其中一种反对涉及这样一个问题：真主为什么赋予我们终极的价值？答案很简单。真主创造了宇宙并超越宇宙，拥有无限的知识与智慧。他的名字包括“全知者”和“至睿者”。因此，他所珍视的是普遍而客观的。换个角度看，真主是最完美的存在，这意味着他没有任何缺陷与瑕疵。因此，他所珍视的必然是客观而终极的，因为这种客观性正是他完美的一个特征。另一种反对认为，即使我们接受真主赋予我们终极的价值，这种价值仍然是主观的，因为它取决于他的视角。这种说法建立在对“主观性”含义的误解之上。主观性适用于个人有限的心智和/或情感。然而，真主的视角基于无限的知识与智慧。他知晓一切，而我们并非如此。古典学者伊本·凯西尔指出，真主拥有智慧与知识的全部，而我们只拥有其中的部分。换言之：真主拥有整幅图景，而我们所拥有的不过是一个像素。乔治华盛顿大学伊斯兰研究教授赛义德·侯赛因·纳赛尔，对在没有真主的情况下人权与尊严（最终指向价值）的概念，作出了精当的概括：

However, in Islam, the ultimate end of those who worship God and are compassionate, honest, just, kind and forgiving is contrasted with the end of those who persist with their evil. The abode of the good is eternal bliss and the abode of the evil is Divine alienation. This alienation is a consequence of consciously denying God’s mercy and guidance, which inevitably results in spiritual anguish and torment. Clearly, Islam gives us ultimate value. However, under atheism, value cannot be rationally justified except as an illusion in our heads. Despite the force of this argument, some atheists still object. One of their objections involves the following question: Why does God give us ultimate value? The answer is simple. God created and transcends the universe, and He has unlimited knowledge and wisdom. His names include The-Knowing and The-Wise. Therefore, what He values is universal and objective. Another way of looking at it is by understanding that God is the maximally perfect Being, which means He is free from any deficiency and flaw. Therefore, it follows that what He values will be objective and ultimate, because this objectivity is a feature of His perfection. Another objection argues that even if we were to accept that God gives us ultimate value, it would still be subjective, as it would be subject to His perspective. This contention is premised on a misunderstanding of what subjectivity means. It applies to an individual’s limited mind and/or feelings. However, God’s perspective is based on unlimited knowledge and wisdom. He knows everything; we do not. The classical scholar Ibn Kathir states that God has the totality of wisdom and knowledge; we have its particulars. In other words: God has the picture, we merely have a pixel. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, provides an apt summary of the concept of human rights and dignity—which ultimately refer to value—in the absence of God:

在谈论人的责任或权利之前，必须先回答一个根本的宗教与哲学问题："人是什么？"在当今世界，人人都在谈论人权和人类生命的神圣性，许多世俗主义者甚至声称自己是人权的真正捍卫者，以对抗那些接受各种宗教世界观的人。但奇怪的是，这些人权的捍卫者往往又相信，人类不过是进化而来的猿类，而猿类又由低等生命形式演化而来，最终源于各种分子化合物。如果人类只是"盲目力量"作用于原始宇宙分子汤的结果，那么关于人类生命神圣性的说法，岂不是在理智上毫无意义，只是一种空洞的情感表达？人的尊严岂不也只是一个为方便而虚构的概念，没有现实依据？如果我们不过是高度组织起来的无生命微粒，那么所谓"人权"的主张又以什么为基础？这些基本问题没有地域界限，世界各地的思考者都在提出。"我们有价值，但这个世界有什么价值？"

“Before speaking of human responsibilities or rights, one must answer the basic religious and philosophical question, ‘What does it mean to be human?’ In today’s world everyone speaks of human rights and the sacred character of human life, and many secularists even claim that they are true champions of human rights as against those who accept various religious worldviews. But strangely enough, often those same champions of humanity believe that human beings are nothing more than evolved apes, who in turn evolved from lower life forms and ultimately from various compounds of molecules. If the human being is nothing but the result of ‘blind forces’ acting upon the original cosmic soup of molecules, then is not the very statement of the sacredness of human life intellectually meaningless and nothing but a hollow sentimental expression? Is not human dignity nothing more than a conveniently contrived notion without basis in reality? And if we are nothing but highly organized inanimate particles, what is the basis for claims to ‘human rights’? These basic questions know no geographic boundaries and are asked by thinking people everywhere.” We have value, but what value does the world have?

你现在大概正坐在椅子上读这本书，身上穿着衣服。所以我想问你一个问题：为了什么目的？你为什么穿衣服，椅子又有什么用途？这些问题的答案是显而易见的。椅子的用途是支撑我们的体重，让我们能够坐下；衣服的用途是保暖、遮蔽身体，当然也使我们看起来更加美观。衣服和椅子都是没有情感和心智能力的无生命之物，但我们却为它们赋予了目的。然而，我们中有些人却不相信自己的存在具有目的。这自然显得荒谬，也有违直觉。人生若有终极目的，就意味着我们的存在有其理由，换言之，存在某种意图和目标。若没有终极目的，我们便没有存在的理由，我们的生命也就缺乏深刻的意义。这正是自然主义的观点。它认为我们仅仅是从先前的物理过程中产生的，而这些过程是盲目的、随机的、非理性的。对我们存在的这种漠然看法，其必然结论是：我们正乘坐在一艘下沉的船上。这艘比喻中的船就是我们的宇宙，因为据科学家所说，这个宇宙正走向其不可避免的消亡，并将经历所谓的“热寂”。在热寂到来之前，人类的生命就会被毁灭，因为太阳最终会摧毁地球。因此，既然这艘船注定要沉没，请允许我问你：去重新摆放甲板上的躺椅，或者给老太太端一杯牛奶，又有什么意义呢？《古兰经》代表了人类对这一问题的直觉立场：“我们的主啊！你没有徒然创造这一切。”

You are probably reading this book sitting on a chair, and you are wearing some clothes. So I would like to ask you a question: For what purpose? Why are you wearing the clothes, and what purpose does the chair have? The answers to these questions are obvious. The chair’s purpose is to allow us to sit down by supporting our weight, and our clothes fulfil the purpose of keeping us warm, hiding our nakedness and of course making us look aesthetically pleasing. Our clothes and the chair are lifeless objects with no emotional or mental abilities, and we attribute purpose to these. Yet some of us do not believe we have a purpose for our own existence. Naturally, this seems absurd and counter-intuitive. Having an ultimate purpose for our lives implies that there is a reason for our existence—in other words, some kind of intention and objective. Without an ultimate purpose we have no reason to exist, and we lack a profound meaning for our lives. This is the perspective of naturalism. It dictates that we merely spring from prior physical processes. These are blind, random and non-rational. The logical conclusion of this indifferent view on our existence is that we are riding on a sinking ship. This metaphorical ship is our universe because, according to scientists, this universe is heading towards its inevitable demise and will suffer what they call a ‘heat death’. Human life will be destroyed prior to this heat death as the Sun will eventually obliterate the Earth.55 Therefore, if this ship is going to sink, I ask you, what is the point of reshuffling the deck chairs or giving a glass of milk to the old lady? The Qur’an represents humanity’s intuitive stance on this issue: “Our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose.”56.

人们所追寻的旅程因人而异。有些人投入多年时间，为自己的名字增添学历和职业资格。有些人在健身房里不知疲倦地锻炼，以求拥有完美的身材。那些渴望家庭之爱的人，往往牺牲自己的生活，去照顾配偶和子女；还有些人周末与朋友狂欢，以此从无休止的工作循环中寻求解脱。这样的例子不胜枚举。于是便产生了一个问题：什么才是真正的、有意义的幸福？为了帮助回答这个问题，请想象下面的情景：在你阅读这段文字时，你在违背自己意愿的情况下被注射了镇静剂。忽然间，你醒了过来，发现自己身处一架飞机之上。你坐在头等舱里。食物美味至极。座椅是一张平躺的床铺，专为奢华舒适的体验而设计。娱乐设施应有尽有。服务更是无可挑剔。你开始使用这里所有的优越设施。时间一点点过去。现在请停下来想一想，并问问自己：我会快乐吗？

The journey that people seek varies from one person to the next. Some dedicate years to adding qualifications and career credentials to their names. Others work tirelessly in gyms to achieve a perfect figure. Those who desire the love of family often end up sacrificing their lives to the care of their spouse and children, while some party their weekends away with friends, seeking a release from the relentless cycle of work. The list is endless. It begs the question: What is true, meaningful happiness? To help answer this question, imagine the following scenario: While reading this, you are sedated against your will. Suddenly you wake up and find yourself on a plane. You’re in first class. The food is heavenly. The seat is a flatbed, designed for a luxurious, comfortable experience. The entertainment is limitless. The service is out of this world. You start to use all of the excellent facilities. Time starts to pass. Now think for a moment, and ask yourself the question: Would I be happy?

“每当你追逐、寻求或祈求某种软弱或无力的事物……你自己也会变得软弱无力。即便你确实得到了所寻求的东西，它也永远不会足够。你很快就会需要去寻求别的东西。你永远无法获得真正的满足与满意。这就是为什么我们生活在一个不断以旧换新、不断升级的世界里。你的手机、你的汽车、你的电脑、你的妻子、你的丈夫，都可以被换成更新、更好的型号。然而，摆脱这种奴役是有自由的。当你全部倚靠的对象坚定不移、牢不可破、永恒不灭时，你就不会倒下。” 接下来的问题是：我们要去往何处？我们面前有一个选择：拥抱神永恒、无限的慈悲，还是逃避它。接受他的慈悲，即回应他的启示，并顺服、崇拜和爱他，将使我们在天堂中获得永恒的幸福。拒绝并逃避神的慈悲，则必然使我们落入一个没有他的爱、充满不幸的地方——火狱。所以，我们有一个选择：要么决定拥抱他的慈悲，要么试图逃离它。我们拥有选择的自由意志。尽管神希望我们得到好处，他却不会强迫我们做出正确的选择。

“Every time you run after, seek, or petition something weak or feeble… you too become weak or feeble. Even if you do reach that which you seek, it will never be enough. You will soon need to seek something else. You will never reach true contentment or satisfaction. That is why we live in a world of trade-ins and upgrades. Your phone, your car, your computer, your woman, your man, can always be traded in for a newer, better model. However, there is a freedom from that slavery. When the object upon which you place all your weight is unshaking, unbreakable, and unending, you cannot fall.” The next question is: Where are we going? We have a choice: to embrace God’s eternal, unbounded mercy, or to run away from it. Accepting His mercy, by responding to His message, and obeying, worshipping and loving Him will facilitate our eternal happiness in paradise. Rejecting and running away from God’s mercy necessitates that we end up in a place devoid of His love, a place of unhappiness— hell. So, we have a choice. Either we decide to embrace His mercy or try to escape from it. We have the free will to choose. Even though God wants good for us, He does not force us to make the right choices.