Whose Hand Is Behind the “Design”? — A Reading of Hawking’s *The Grand Design*

“Why is there something rather than nothing? Why does the universe exist? Why do we exist?” — These are the “riddle of existence” that Hawking, a passionate lover of the cosmos, sets out to answer in *The Grand Design* [1]1 *The Grand Design* (2010), a popular science book co-authored by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, which argues that physical laws, not a divine creator, can explain the origin and existence of the universe.. This is originally a traditional philosophical question, and also an ultimate question about the universe, all things, and life itself, which humanity has never ceased to pursue for thousands of years. Today, scientists, philosophers, and theologians converge at the intersection of these three fields, each seeking their own answer: Who created the universe and us? Who “designed” all of this?

“为何是有非无? 宇宙何以存在? 我们何以存在? ”——这是酷爱宇宙的霍金，在《大设计》① 中要回答的“存在之谜”。这本是个传统哲学问题，也是关于宇宙、万物、生命的终极问题，人类对它千百年来的追问，从未停止过。如今，科学家、哲学家与神学家来到三个领域的交汇处，各自寻找答案：是谁创造宇宙和我们? 是谁“设计”了这一切?

Here, we will discuss why Hawking wanted to answer this question, how he answered it, and what insights his answer offers us.

这里，我们将讨论霍金为什么要解答这个问题，他是如何解答的，他的答案给了我们哪些启示。

I. *The Grand Design* Aims to Explain — Whose Hand Created the Universe

一、《大设计》旨在解释——宇宙出自谁之手

1. The “Riddle of Existence” That Has Long Perplexed Humanity

1． 令人类长久困惑的“存在之谜”

More than a decade ago, two books took the world by storm: one was *Sophie’s World* [2]2 *Sophie’s World* (1991), a novel by Jostein Gaarder that presents a history of philosophy through a fictional narrative., the other was *A Brief History of Time*. Now, *The Grand Design* has recreated the scene of the former two.

十几年前，有两本书风靡全球，一本是《苏菲的世界》②，另一本是《时间简史》。如今，《大设计》又重现了前两者的光景。

*Sophie’s World*, revolving around the questions “Who are you?” and “Where does the world come from?”, takes the reader on a journey through the entire history of Western philosophy from before Plato up to the 20th century, with the suspense of a detective novel. Its aim to “awaken in everyone’s heart a wonder at life and a concern and curiosity for the ultimate meaning of existence” has led it to be translated into 35 languages, topping book sales charts worldwide, and hailed as the world’s most accessible and understandable philosophical masterpiece.

《苏菲的世界》围绕着“你是谁? ”“世界从哪里来的? ”问题，以侦探小说般的心情，浏览了从柏拉图以前一直到20世纪的整部世界哲学史，其“唤醒每个人内心深处对生命赞叹与对人生终极意义的关怀与好奇”，被翻译成35种文字，雄踞全球各国图书销售榜首，被誉为全世界最易读易懂的哲学奇书。

*A Brief History of Time*, meanwhile, is “the authoritative summary by a contemporary physicist of the composition, origin, and evolution of the universe,” “fascinating and lucid… offering readers the opportunity to learn advanced science directly from the source.” Since 1988, it has been translated into 40 languages and sold over 10 million copies worldwide, a marvel in the history of international publishing. Unfortunately, due to the highly abstract nature of modern cosmological theory itself, it is very difficult for laypeople to understand. Hence, many are interested, but few truly grasp it.

《时间简史》则是“当代物理学家有关宇宙组成、创生和演化的权威总结”，“迷人而清澈……让读者获得直接源泉学习高深科学的机会。”1988年以来，被翻译成40种文字，全球发行了1000多万册，成为国际出版史上的奇观。只可惜，由于现代宇宙学理论本身的高度抽象性，外行很难看得懂。因此，有兴趣的人多，看懂的人少。

The popularity of such books shows that people around the world are deeply concerned with the “riddle of existence.” As Hawking points out at the beginning of *The Grand Design*: “How can we understand the world in which we find ourselves? How does the universe behave? What is the nature of reality? Most of us do not worry about these questions most of the time, but almost all of us worry about them some of the time” (p. 3). And the purpose of Hawking, in collaboration with Leonard Mlodinow, in writing *The Grand Design*, is to answer this question from the perspective of scientific theoretical predictions.

从这类图书的热销看，说明世人非常关注“存在之谜”问题，正如霍金在《大设计》开篇时指出：“我们怎么理解我们所处于其中的世界呢? 宇宙如何运行? 什么是实在的本性? 我们中的多数人在大部分时间里不为这些问题烦恼，但是我们几乎每个人有时会为这些问题所困扰。”（p3）而霍金与列纳德•蒙洛迪合作写就《大设计》的目的，就是要从科学理论预言角度解答这个问题。

2. The Millennia-Old Inquiry and Exploration of the “Riddle of Existence”

2． 对“存在之谜”的千古追问与探寻

The popularity of the aforementioned books is a cultural reflection of society’s concern with such “ultimate questions.” Film, as another form of social cultural carrier, has also reflected such conceptual issues. For example, in the animated film *The Lion King*, the warthog Pumbaa, in the stillness of the night, looks up at the vast starry sky and asks: “What’s up there?” “Why are we here?” This anthropomorphic expression of human thought through the mouth of an animal indicates how profound, enduring, and important the inquiry into the “riddle of existence” is in human culture.

上述图书的热销，是社会关注此类“终极问题”的文化反映。电影作为另一种形式的社会文化载体，也曾有过这类观念问题的反映。如动画片《狮子王》中的野猪蓬蓬，夜深人静之时，仰望浩瀚星空发问：“那上面会有什么? ”“我们为什么会在这里? ”这种借动物之口表达人思想的拟人形式，表明了人类文化中，“存在之谜”的询问是那么深邃久远而重要。

From ancient times to the present, how have humans answered these questions?

自古至今，人类是怎样解答这些疑问的呢?

The earliest answers were myths and legends. Every ancient civilization in the world has its own creation myths, such as China’s Pangu separating heaven and earth, and Nüwa molding humans from clay; or ancient Greece’s Zeus, father of the gods, creating the gods and controlling everything in the world. Hawking believes that “the ancients’ ignorance of the way of nature led them to invent gods to lord it over every aspect of human life.” “These gods were capricious and unpredictable, and people were at their mercy” (p. 13).

最先的答案是神话传说，世界各古代文明中，都有自己的创生神话，如中国的盘古开天地、女娲抟土造人；古希腊众神之父宙斯等创造诸神并掌控世间一切。霍金认为“古人对自然方式的无知，导致他们去发明神祗对人类生活方方面面作威作福。”“这些神显得不可思议，而人们被玩弄于其股掌之上。”（p13）

Around the 5th or 6th century BCE, Greek scientists and philosophers began to view the world they inhabited with entirely new concepts, for the first time excluding the gods. The answers to the “riddle of existence” began to progress, giving rise to a rational view of nature and the idea that humans do not live at the center of the universe. Hawking argues that, marked by Thales’s “idea that nature follows consistent principles that can be interpreted,” this “began the long process of replacing the rule of gods with the concept of a universe that is governed by the laws of nature and created according to a blueprint we could someday read” (p. 13).

大约公元前五六百年前，古希腊的科学家和哲学家，开始以全新的观念看待置身其中的世界，第一次把神排除在外。对“存在之谜”的解答，开始有所进步，出现了理性化的自然观，并有了人类居住在非宇宙中心的思想。霍金认为：以泰勒斯的“自然遵循着一致的可被解释的原则的思想”为标志，“起始了利用宇宙概念来取代神权统治的长期过程，而宇宙是由自然定律制约的，并按照我们将来总有一天能读懂的蓝图创生。”（p13）

By the Middle Ages, the science of the ancient Greek scientists, limited by its vague concepts and the confusion of divine action within them, was once again replaced by theological ideas. The “riddle of existence” had only theological answers. With the six-day creation of the world by God as the foundation of religious theology, the idea that God created the universe, all things, and humanity, and controls and interferes with everything in the world, became a deeply entrenched social belief, concept, and code of conduct. This was manifested in the fields of thought and culture, such as literature, art, philosophy, science, and ethics. It was believed that natural laws were also an expression of God’s order in creation, and that science and philosophy served to prove the existence of God. Representative figures were the theological theorist Thomas Aquinas and the teleological physicist Aristotle. The theological claim that God created the universe and controls everything has persisted as a core concept in human culture, and its influence remains to this day.

到了中世纪，古希腊科学家的科学，因其概念笼统模糊和将神作用混淆其中的局限，又一次被神学观念所代替，“存在之谜”只有神学的答案。随着上帝六日创世说作为宗教神学的基础，上帝创造宇宙万物与人类，并控制和干扰世界一切的思想，成为根深蒂固的社会信仰、观念和行为准则，表现在思想文化和社会文化领域中，如文学艺术、哲学、科学、伦理等等方面，认为自然定律也是上帝创造宇宙秩序的表现，科学、哲学都是为上帝存在提供证明的，等等。代表人物是神学理论家阿奎那和目的论物理学的思想家亚里斯多德。神学的上帝创造宇宙万物和控制世间一切的主张，一直作为传统存在于人类文化的核心观念中，至今影响犹在。

With the Renaissance leading to the modern scientific revolution, Copernicus’s heliocentric theory, the observation-based astronomical and physical discoveries of Galileo and Kepler, and later Newton, who synthesized the theoretical discoveries of his predecessors to construct the system of Newtonian classical mechanics, astronomy and physics achieved great successes, which in turn changed people’s conception of the universe. The “riddle of existence” received a different answer: the Earth revolves around the Sun and is not the center of the universe; given an initial state, the motion of objects follows the laws of mechanics, and its outcome can be predicted; therefore, the universe operates like a great machine, orderly according to natural laws.

随着文艺复兴导致近代科学革命的发生，哥白尼的日心说，伽利略和开普勒以观测为基础的天文学与物理学发现，以及后来的牛顿，在其前的物理学家理论发现之上集大成，构建了牛顿经典力学体系。天文学和物理学取得了巨大成就，并随之改变了人们对宇宙的观念。“存在之谜”有了不同的答案：地球是绕着太阳旋转的，并非宇宙的中心；物体的运动只要给定初始状态，就会按照力学定律运动，人们可以预知它的结果；因此，宇宙世界就像一部大的机器，按照自然规律有序地运行。

However, this mechanistic, deterministic worldview only described how the myriad things in the world operate, without explaining why they can operate this way. The scientific achievements of the time could not yet answer: “How was the universe created?” “How did we come to be?” Therefore, many scientists deeply influenced by Christian theology naturally assumed that it was all arranged by God, including the formulation of natural laws. Many scientists, like Descartes and Newton, assigned God the role of creator of the universe, believing that God promulgated the natural laws, which were a reflection of God’s own nature. Once God set the world in motion, He no longer intervened. Newton’s “God as the first cause of the Earth’s motion” is a representative view. They believed that discovering natural laws through science was the best proof of God. At that time, the answer to the “riddle of existence” was still theological determinism; humanity had not yet been liberated from the intellectual shackles of God.

但是，这种机械决定论的世界观，只是描述世界万物如何运行的，而没有解释为什么能这样运行，当时的科学成就还回答不了：“宇宙是怎样产生的? ”，“我们怎样来得? ”因此当时，很多深受基督教神学思想影响的科学家，理所当然地认为：那是上帝安排的，包括自然规律的制定。很多像笛卡儿、牛顿的科学家，就给出了上帝的宇宙创始的角色，认为是上帝颁布了自然定律，定律是上帝自身本性的反映，上帝一旦让世界启动，就不再管它了，牛顿“上帝为地球的第一推动力”是个代表观点，并且他们认为科学发现自然定律就是对上帝最好的证明。当时的“存在之谜”答案，仍然是神决定论，人还没有从神的思想束缚中解脱出来。

However, the nebular hypothesis on the origin of the solar system proposed by the astronomer Laplace and the philosopher Kant changed this situation. They could explain the formation process of the solar system using natural laws alone, arguing that the Earth’s revolution around the Sun did not require the introduction of the concept of God. This freed science from the bonds of theology and changed people’s belief that God created and controlled everything. Hawking evaluates Laplace as “the first to clearly articulate scientific determinism,” stating that “given the state of the universe at one moment, a complete set of laws fully determines its future and its past. This eliminates the possibility of miracles or the active intervention of God” (p. 24).

然而，天文学家拉普拉斯和哲学家康德的太阳系起源星云假说，改变了上述情况，他们运用自然规律就可以解释太阳系的形成过程，认为地球绕日运转不必加进上帝观念，因而使科学摆脱了神学束缚，从而改变了人们那种神创造和控制一切的观念。霍金评价拉普拉斯，是“清楚提出科学决定论的第一人”，“给出宇宙在一个时刻的状态，定律的完备集合完全确定其未来和过去。这就删除了奇迹或者上帝的主动作用的可能性”（p24）。

Thereafter, the conceptual revolution in cosmology initiated by Laplace led to continuous questioning of God by philosophers. Representative figures include, first, the famous philosopher Nietzsche, who declared that “God is dead”; and second, Bertrand Russell, whose essay “Why I Am Not a Christian,” based on the scientific discoveries of the time, theoretically refuted the absurdity of the existence of God. People began to realize that God was merely an explanation of the unknown through mystery, not a true explanation of anything. The universe is a natural universe, not a divinely created one; it operates according to natural laws and requires no supernatural factors. People can rationally pursue scientific exploration, develop more scientific laws, and achieve results in scientific understanding. These concepts gradually became a common consensus.

此后，由于拉普拉斯的宇宙观念变革，引发了哲学家对上帝的质疑声不断出现，代表人物，一是著名哲学家尼采，他就断言“上帝死了”；另一位则是罗素，他的“我为什么不是基督徒”一文，依据当时的科学发现，从理论上否定了上帝存在论的荒谬性。人们开始认识到，上帝不过是以神秘来解释未知，并未真正解释什么；宇宙是自然的宇宙，不是神创的宇宙，是按照自然规律运行的宇宙，不需要超自然因素； 人们可以理性地进行科学探索，发展更多的科学规律，取得科学认识的成果。这些观念逐渐成为人们的共识。

As the boundaries of scientific understanding expand, everything once explained by the mysterious stand-in “God” has gradually received partial explanations through natural laws. Consequently, the idea that God governs everything and dominates every sphere of society has had to change. Within the cultural landscape, religious conceptions have yielded to science in many domains, step by step retreating into the realm of faith, no longer serving as the mainstream consciousness of social and political culture. Science has become the protagonist in the torrent of culture.

随着科学认识边界的扩大，原本用“上帝”这个神秘代名词解释的一切，逐渐得到自然规律的部分解释，由此，上帝主宰一切、主导社会各个领域的思想，不得不改变。文化格局中，宗教观念在很多领域让位于科学，一步一步退缩到信仰领域中，不再成为社会政治文化的主流意识，科学成为文化洪流中的主角。

However, questions concerning the origin of the universe, of all things, and of life on Earth remain frontier issues in science today. There, the “riddle of existence” has not been resolved, and God still has a role to play. Where others dare not affirm anything for lack of evidence, the mysterious stand-in — God — enjoys a special right of interpretation. With absolute certainty, it consoles people’s doubts and anxieties over ultimate questions.

但是，关涉宇宙万物、地球和生命的起源问题，是目前科学的前沿问题，在那里，“存在之谜”并没有解决，上帝仍然有用武之地，在别人没有根据不敢肯定的时候，神秘的代名词——上帝，就会拥有一种特殊的解释权利，它以绝对的确定性，慰藉着人们因终极问题产生的疑惑与不安。

3. From whose hand does the universe come?

3． 宇宙出自谁之手?

With the development of modern physics, modern cosmology, founded on quantum mechanics and general relativity, has proposed the Big Bang model of the universe. Who created the universe? Do we need a supernatural intelligence (God) to create the universe and us? The “riddle of existence,” at the frontier of scientific inquiry, once again brings together scientists, philosophers, and theologians. In the intersecting territory of science and religion, each has its own particular answer.

随着现代物理学的发展，以量子力学和广义相对论为基础建立的现代宇宙学，提出了大爆炸宇宙模型。是谁创造了宇宙? 需要一个超自然的智慧者（上帝）创造宇宙和我们吗? “存在之谜”在科学探索的边界，又一次招来科学家、哲学家和神学家聚头，在科学与宗教的交叉领域里，他们有着各自特殊的答案。

Contemporary cosmology, built on the Big Bang model, is so abstract in its models and theories that it is beyond the comprehension of most non-specialists. Moreover, it profoundly alters people’s intuitive experience and conventional thinking, as well as their worldview. Hence, each person’s understanding of it differs. For example, the average person may intuitively understand it literally: the Big Bang means the universe had a beginning, coming into being from nothing, with time starting from zero and continuing to the present.

以宇宙大爆炸模型建立起的当代宇宙学，其模型与理论过于抽象，非一般专业人士所能理解，而且深刻改变着人的直观经验和常规思维，也改变着对世界的观念。因此，每个人对它的理解会产生不同。例如，一般人会从字面上直观理解为：宇宙大爆炸，就说明宇宙有个开端，从无到有，时间从零到现在。

Who ignited this explosion? Who brought life into existence? The theologian’s answer: the universe comes from the hand of God (or a “special intelligence,” synonymous with God). For the famous medieval theologian St. Augustine said, “Time is a property of the world that God created; time did not exist before creation” (p. 42). Therefore, the Big Bang precisely proves God’s existence. Proponents of “intelligent design” argue that the reason our universe can sustain life is that it possesses a special set of natural laws and physical constants that make our existence possible — as if these were specially designed. Hence, there must be an intelligent designer who designed everything in the universe. The term “design” is a very fashionable word in contemporary conceptions of the universe; some use it as a stand-in for divine will — God’s deliberate act.

谁点燃了这个爆炸过程? 谁让生命存在的? 神学家的答案：宇宙出自上帝之手（或者是与上帝同义词的“特别的智慧者”）。因为中世纪著名神学家圣•奥古斯丁说，“时间是上帝创造的世界的一个性质，时间在创生之前不存在”（p42），因此，大爆炸正好证明了上帝存在。“智能设计论”者认为：我们的宇宙之所以能够使生命存在，是有使我们能够存在的一套特别的自然定律和物理常数，这些好像是专门设计过的，因此，肯定存在一个智慧设计者，将宇宙的一切都设计好了。“设计”这个词汇是当今社会宇宙观念中非常时髦的词汇，某些人代指神意——上帝有意为之。

But many physical scientists, like Hawking, regard these views as misunderstandings or distortions of Big Bang theory. The Big Bang does not prove God’s existence, nor does the evolution of the universe, all things, and life require any “special design” by an “intelligence.” The universe was naturally created under physical laws and operates according to natural laws. The universe comes entirely from the hand of nature, with no need for supernatural factors — God or an “intelligent designer.”

而许多像霍金这样的物理科学家，认为这些观点是对宇宙大爆炸理论的误解或曲解，大爆炸并没有证明上帝的存在，宇宙万物和生命的演化过程，也并不需要什么“智慧者”的“特殊设计”。宇宙是在物理定律之下自然创生的，并按自然定律运行。宇宙完全出自自然之手，不需要超自然因素——上帝或“智慧设计者”。

In *The Grand Design*, Hawking argues that, following quantum mechanics, general relativity, particle physics, and string theory, M-theory is the latest theory in cosmology, which can also be called a “theory of everything.” It is “a family of different theories, each of which provides a good description of observations only in a certain range of physical situations” (p. 6). It is “the latest picture of the universe and our place in it, a picture that is very different from the traditional one, and even from the picture we drew only a decade or two ago” (p. 3). For example, in M-theory’s 11-dimensional spacetime, time is only one dimension, and at the moment of the universe’s creation, the time dimension and seven of the spatial dimensions are automatically eliminated under the deduction of physical laws. Hawking “realized that time behaving like space presented a new choice. It not only eliminated the long-standing controversy about the universe having a beginning, but also meant that the beginning of the universe is governed by scientific laws, and need not be set in motion by some god” (p. 117).

在《大设计》中，霍金认为，继量子力学、广义相对论以及粒子物理、弦论之后，M理论是宇宙学最新的理论，也可称为“万物理论”。它是“一族不同的理论，其中的每一种只在物理场景的某一范围很好地描述观测”（p6），是“把我们引向宇宙以及我们在其中的位置的最新图像，这种图像和传统的、甚至与仅一二十年前我们画出的图像都大相径庭。”（p3）例如，M理论的11维宇宙时空中，时间只是其中1个维度，而且在宇宙创生时的物理时空中，时间维度和其中的7个空间维度在物理定律推演下被自动消除了。霍金“意识到时间像空间那样行为呈现了新的选择。它不仅排除了对宇宙具有开端的长期争议，而且意味着宇宙的起始由科学定律来制约，而不必由某种神来启动”（p117）。

4. Hawking’s picture of the universe and its interpretation

4． 霍金的宇宙图景及其理解

At the end of the first chapter, “The Mystery of Being,” Hawking says: “According to M-theory, our universe is not the only universe. Instead, M-theory predicts that many universes are created from nothing. Their creation requires no supernatural being or godly intervention. Rather, these multiple universes arise naturally from physical law. They are scientific predictions. Each universe later — that is, at a moment like the present, long after its creation — has many possible histories and possible states. Most of these states are completely unlike the universe we observe, completely unsuitable for any form of life. Only very few allow beings like us to exist. Thus, our existence selects from this vast collection only those universes that are compatible with our existence. Although we are small and insignificant on the cosmic scale, this makes us, in a sense, the lords of creation” (p. 7).

霍金在第一章“存在之谜”结尾中说：“根据M理论，我们的宇宙不是仅有的宇宙。相反地，M理论预言，众多的宇宙从无中创生。它们的创生不需要某种超自然的存在或上帝的干预。毋宁说，这些多重宇宙从物理定律自然地发生。它们是科学的预言。每个宇宙在后来，也就是说，在像现在这个时刻，即在它创生许久之后，具有许多可能的历史和可能的状态。这些状态中的大多数完全不像我们观察到的宇宙，完全不适宜于任何生命形式的存在。只有非常少的可让像我们这样的生物存在。因而，我们的存在从这个大量集合中只选取出那些和我们存在相协调的宇宙。尽管在宇宙的尺度下，我们是弱小和微不足道的，然而这使我们在某种意义上成为万物之灵。”（p7）

This passage can be understood colloquially as follows: First, there may be many universes; physical laws cause them to be naturally created from nothing, without supernatural forces or God’s intervention. Second, after creation, the states of existence of these universes have many possibilities; some can sustain life, others cannot. Third, our current universe is one among many universes and one among many post-creation states; its natural laws and physical constants happen to allow us to exist, so we are able to observe existence today. (If this were not the case, we would have no need to discuss it here.) Fourth, because of the three points above, we are merely one chance universe among many, not a special existence. No one specially created us, and no one specifically designed us; everything exists and occurs within the operation of natural laws. Even if we are the lords of creation, we are still insignificant and ordinary in the vast cosmos.

这段话可通俗理解为：第一，可能有很多的宇宙存在，物理定律使它们从无中自然创生，不用超自然的力量或上帝干预；第二，宇宙创生后的存在状态又有很多可能性，其中有的能使生命存在，有的则不能；第三，我们现在的宇宙是众多宇宙和创生后众多状态中的一个，其运行的自然定律和物理常数，碰巧能使我们存在，才得以观察到今天的存在。（如果不是这样，我们也就没有必要在这里讨论了）；第四，由于上述三条，因而我们只是众多宇宙中碰巧的一个，不是特殊的存在，既没有谁专门创造过，也没有谁特定设计过，一切都在自然定律运行之中存在与发生。即使我们是万物之灵，但在浩瀚宇宙中也是微弱的、普通的。

From this we can see that Hawking’s understanding of the meaning of the universe, all things, and life is purely naturalistic, with no supernatural factors whatsoever.

由此我们可以看出，霍金对宇宙、万物、生命存在意义的理解是纯粹的自然主义的，没有任何超自然因素。

II. How *The Grand Design* Interprets the Meaning of the Universe, All Things, and Life

二、《大设计》如何解读宇宙、万物、生命存在意义的

1. The metaphor in the title *The Grand Design* — it is nature as it is, not God’s design

1．《大设计》取名的隐喻——是自然如此而非上帝设计

Seeing the title *The Grand Design* stirs deep-seated questions in people’s minds: How did the world come to be? Scientists have discovered the mysteries of the world — natural laws — showing that the universe is so orderly, as if it had been designed by something. Who designed us? Is it God, or is nature inherently this way? Such questions are often raised, and proponents of intelligent design have been very active in recent decades.

看到《大设计》书名，就会勾起人内心深处的疑问，世界怎样来得? 科学家发现了世界的奥秘——自然定律，表明宇宙是那么的有秩序，就像被什么设计过似的。到底是谁设计了我们? 是上帝，还是自然本来如此? 这种疑问常被提起，因而智能设计论者近十几年非常活跃。

Hawking also uses the term “grand design” at the end of the book, but there it is an expression of excitement in evaluating the value of a new cosmological theory. He points out: “M-theory is the unified theory Einstein hoped to find. We humans — we ourselves are merely aggregates of the basic particles of nature — have been able to come so close to understanding the laws that govern us and our universe. This fact is a great triumph.” “If the theory is confirmed by observation, it will be the successful conclusion of an intellectual quest lasting more than 3,000 years. We will have found the grand design” (p. 154). His “grand design” here is not the supernatural, mysterious “design” of theology, but rather a unified theory of the laws of the universe — a set of natural laws that can explain observed cosmic phenomena. His adoption of the term “design,” traditionally used by theology to answer ultimate questions, likely aims to express that the predictions he obtains through scientific methods negate the claim of “supernatural, mysterious design.” It is his interpretation of the special meaning of God, a negative metaphor. This, too, can be taken as one way of understanding the implication of the title *The Grand Design*.

霍金在书最后也用“大设计”一词，那是一种评论新宇宙理论价值时的激动，他指出：“M理论是爱因斯坦希望找到的统一理论。我们人类——我们自身只不过是自然的基本粒子的集聚——已经能够这么接近理解制约我们和我们宇宙的定律，这一事实就是一项伟大的胜利。”“如果该理论被观测所证实，它就将是长达3000年以上智力探索的成功终结。我们就将找到大设计。”（p154）他这里的“大设计”不是神学所讲的超自然神秘“设计”，而是为寻找一种宇宙规律的统一理论——一组可以解释观测到的宇宙现象的自然定律。他沿用传统神学解答终极问题时的“设计”一词，恐怕正在于要表达，他运用科学方法得到的预言，否定了“超自然的神秘设计”的说法，是他对上帝特殊含义的诠释，是一种否定的隐喻。这也算是对《大设计》取名寓意的一种理解罢。

2. What problems does *The Grand Design* interpret? — The radiance of scientific reason

2．《大设计》解读了什么问题——科学理性的光辉

*The Grand Design* revolves around the universe, all things, and the meaning of life, step by step interpreting what M-theory actually means. Hawking, through eight chapters — “The Mystery of Being,” “The Rule of Law,” “What Is Reality?,” “Alternative Histories,” “The Theory of Everything,” “Choosing Our Universe,” “The Apparent Miracle,” and “The Grand Design” — elucidates the ultimate questions of millennia and traditional philosophical problems: who created the universe and us, making everything as it is now; and he analyzes why such a “theory of everything” is reasonable.

《大设计》全书围绕宇宙、万物、生命存在意义，一步步解读M理论到底什么含义。霍金以“存在之谜”、“定律规则”、“何为实在”、“可择历史”、“万物理论”、“选择宇宙”、“表观奇迹”和“伟大设计”的八章内容，阐释了千百年来人类的终极疑问和传统哲学问题——是谁创造了宇宙和我们，成为现在的一切；并分析了为何这样的“万物理论”是合理的。

(1) How is the question of reasonableness raised?

（1）合理性问题是如何提出的?

Hawking’s scientific version of the story of cosmic creation is a scientific prediction based on M-theory. It goes beyond our traditional cultural concepts and intuitive experience, and also changes people’s conventional mode of thinking (i.e., shifting from the “bottom-up” mode of thinking that moves from the past to the future to the “top-down” mode of thinking that infers the past from the present). The key point is that M-theory predicts that the universe is entirely natural, eliminating the mysterious factor of God.

霍金科学版本的宇宙创生故事，是根据M理论作出的科学预言，它超出了我们传统文化观念和直观经验的理解，也改变了人们常规的思维模式（即从过去走向未来的“从底向顶”的思维方式，转变为从现在推论过去的“从顶到底”的思维方式）。关键是，M理论预言，宇宙完全是自然而然的，排除了上帝这一神秘因素。

Of course, it is easy to take a stance, but what supports these claims must be based on evidence. So, on what basis do we believe that M-theory is reasonable? This directly leads to the question of why we believe in scientific laws or natural laws. Because some people have questioned the objective reasonableness of science, arguing that “natural laws” are all theoretical assumptions of scientists, a kind of “human construction”; moreover, these people are willing to believe in the orderliness of the universe as a concept that serves as the pillar of the scientific edifice; yet God is the maker of the rules of law, so the concept that “God establishes order” has long been embedded in the edifice of scientific theory… thus concluding that science also needs the guidance of religion.

当然，表明一种态度很容易，但靠什么支持这些，则必须拿出根据。那么，我们凭什么相信M理论是合理的呢? 这直接导致我们为什么要相信科学定律或自然定律的追问。因为有人就曾质疑过科学的客观合理性，认为“自然定律”都是科学家的理论假设，是一种“人为的建构”；另外，这些人愿意相信宇宙的秩序性，是作为科学大厦支柱的观念；而上帝却是定律规则的制订者，因此，“上帝制定秩序”这一观念早就镶嵌在科学理论大厦之中了……从而得出科学也需要宗教指导的结论。

What is the actual situation?

情况到底怎样呢?

Hawking’s approach to solving this problem is: first, through the process of people’s understanding and comprehension of natural laws (expressed as natural laws), he elucidates the reasonableness of natural laws in the modern sense; second, using the natural laws and their theoretical models that have been effective in scientific development up to the present, he explains the explanatory method used by modern science — the reasonableness based on model-dependent realism; third, he interprets M-theory as a theory that synthesizes current frontier scientific theories (quantum field theory, particle physics, general relativity, string theory, etc.) to explain the modern cosmological view, and its reasonableness inherits the reasonableness of these theories. This process of argumentation fully demonstrates the brilliance and power of scientific rationality.

霍金解决这个问题的思路是：第一步，通过人们对自然规律（以自然定律表达）的认识过程和理解，阐明现代意义下的自然定律的合理性；第二步，以科学发展至今有效的自然定律及其理论模型，来阐述现代科学所使用的解释方式——依据模型实在论的合理性；第三步，解读M理论是综合当前前沿的科学理论（量子场论、粒子物理、广义相对论、弦论等），来阐释现代宇宙观的理论，其合理性是继承了这些理论的合理性。这个论述过程，充分显示出科学理性的光辉与力量。

(2) Understanding and Comprehending Natural Laws — How Tortuous and Difficult a Process

（2）认识与理解自然规律——多么曲折艰难的过程

Human thought has continuously progressed through the understanding and comprehension of natural laws. The exposition of this process is the logical starting point for Hawking’s explanation of the reasonableness of M-theory. In my personal view, this is a brilliant aspect of Hawking’s *The Grand Design*. Hawking’s basic line of thought is as follows:

人类思想因对自然规律认识与理解，而不断获得进步。对这一过程的论述，是霍金阐释M理论合理性的逻辑起点，我个人认为，这是霍金《大设计》的一个精彩之处。霍金的基本思想路径如下：

First, he expounds on the science of the ancient Greek Ionians, raising the question of natural laws.

第一，阐述古希腊爱奥尼亚人的科学，提出自然定律问题。

Hawking praises an ancient Greek view of nature — “that nature is governed by general laws and can be reduced to a simple set of principles.” He believes that Thales proposed “the idea that nature follows consistent, explainable principles,” and he lists “the first people to explain natural phenomena through natural laws rather than theology or myth”: such as Pythagoras, who first used mathematical expression; Archimedes, who discovered the law of the lever, the law of buoyancy, and the law of reflection; Anaximander, who saw through observation and reason that the universe has an internal order; Democritus, who proposed atomism, etc. Hawking especially mentions Aristarchus, the first to propose the idea that “we are merely ordinary inhabitants of the universe, not special beings existing at its center in a privileged position” (p. 16). Hawking believes that “the Ionian idea that the universe is not centered on humanity is a milestone in our understanding of the universe” (p. 17). This was the beginning of humanity’s use of reason and liberation from the shackles of gods.

霍金赞赏古希腊时期一种自然观——“自然可通过一般定律得到解释并且归结为简单的一族原理”。他认为是泰勒斯提出了“自然遵循着一致的可被解释的原则的思想”，而且列举了“最早通过自然定律而非神学或神话，解释自然现象的人们”：如最早用数学表达的毕达格拉斯；发现杠杆定律、浮力定律、反射定律的阿基米德；由观测和理性看到宇宙具有内部秩序的阿那克西曼德；提出原子论的德谟克里特等。霍金特别提到阿里斯塔克，第一个提出“我们只不过是宇宙中的普通栖息者，并非存在于它的中心而优越的成为特殊生物”（p16）的观念。霍金认为“爱奥尼亚人关于宇宙不是以人为中心的观念是我们理解宇宙的里程碑”（p17）。这是人类运用理性、摆脱神束缚的开始。

Second, he expounds on the first twist in the path of human thought.

第二，阐述人类思想道路上发生的第一次曲折。

Hawking believes that the ideas of the ancient Greek scientists were later submerged because their theories were “not targets for practical verification,” so they did not meet the “standard” of modern science; moreover, “there was no clear distinction between human and physical laws,” and they “often included universal rules of human behavior — such as revering God and obeying parents — into natural laws,” and “often described physical processes in legal terms and believed they were enforced.” Aristotle abandoned the basic methods and actual practices of observing nature required by science, and instead used pure “reason” to establish a “teleological” physics, focusing only on “why” nature behaves, not “how” it behaves, believing that everything happens because of God’s “preference.” This tradition continued to influence thinkers for many centuries, producing “the idea that natural laws must be consciously obeyed” (p. 17).

霍金认为古希腊科学家的思想后来被淹没，是因为他们的理论并“不作为实践验证的目标”，所以不够现代科学的“格”；而且“在人和物理的定律之间也没有清楚的区分”，“经常把普适的人类行为规则——如崇尚上帝以及服从父母，包括到自然定律中”，“经常以法律的术语描述物理过程，并且相信它们被实施的。”亚里斯多得抛弃了科学所要求的、观察自然的基础方法和实际行为，而是以纯粹的“理性”，建立起“目的论”的物理学，只关注自然“为何行为”，不关心“如何行为”，认为一切之所以发生都是为上帝的“喜好”。而这个传统继续影响了许多世纪的思想家们，产生“自然定律必须被有意服从的观念”（p17）。

In the 13th century, the early Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas adopted this view and used it to argue for the existence of God, laying the theoretical foundation for religious rule throughout the Middle Ages. At that time, “the idea of neutral natural laws governing the universe was rejected,” and “the idea that humans do not occupy a privileged position in the universe was rejected.” The prevailing cosmological view was that “the universe is merely God’s toy house, and religion is a far more valuable object of study than natural phenomena.” At the same time, “the idea that nature follows laws” was considered “to be condemned, because it conflicts with God’s omnipotence” (p. 19). Human thought was once again suppressed within the framework of God, marking the first twist on the path of reason.

13世纪早期基督教哲学家托马斯•阿奎那采用这个观点，并利用它来论断上帝的存在，奠定了宗教统治整个中世纪的理论基础。当时，“拒绝宇宙中性的自然定律制约的观念”，“拒绝人类在宇宙中不占优势地位的观念”，认为“宇宙只是上帝的玩具小屋，而宗教是远比自然现象更有价值的研究对象”，成为当时社会的主要的宇宙观念。同时，“自然遵循定律的思想”被认为“应当予以谴责”，“因为那与上帝的万能相冲突”（p19）。人类的思想重新压抑在神的框架之下，在理性道路上出现第一次曲折。

Hawking also objectively analyzes: “In ancient times, precise measurement and mathematical calculation were difficult,” and “the equals sign and a clock that could measure time to the second did not appear until the 16th century” (p. 18). We can now understand that without the scientific conditions of means to observe nature and mathematical expression, the pace of human thought could only stop at fantasy and speculation, and could not develop into modern science.

霍金也客观地分析到：“古代精确测量和数学计算是困难的”，“直到16世纪之前等号和能计时到秒的钟还未出现”（p18）。我们现在可以理解到，在没有观察自然手段和数学表述的科学条件时，人们的思想步伐也只能停止于幻想与思辩中，而不可能发展到近代科学。

Third, he expounds on “the modern concept of natural laws emerging in the 17th century.”

第三，阐述“17世纪出现了自然定律的现代概念”。

Modern science began with the Copernican heliocentric theory, and by the 17th century, the modern concept of natural laws emerged. Natural laws, as objective existences reflecting the essence of the material world, are expressed in the form of natural laws, indicating that the natural order of the universe follows regular patterns, can be repeatedly observed and tested, and can effectively predict future results, which can be further tested. Natural laws are not general and vague, but can be accurately expressed using concepts and terms in the form of mathematical equations of laws. Kepler was the first to use the concept of natural laws in the modern sense; Galileo was the first to develop observation and experiment as scientific methods, thereby discovering a large number of laws and proposing two important principles: observation is the foundation of science, and the goal of science is to study the quantitative relationships existing between physical phenomena; Descartes was the first to clearly and strictly express the concept of natural laws: all physical phenomena are governed by laws, these laws are valid at all times and in all places, and obeying these laws does not imply that moving objects have a spirit; as long as initial conditions are given, objects move according to laws, and the results of their motion can be accurately predicted; Newton’s outstanding achievements in mechanics, astronomy, and optics gradually made classical physics a knowledge system encompassing many physical phenomena and laws of the time, among which the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation well explained the astronomical observations of the time.

近代科学以哥白尼日心说为开端，到了17世纪出现了自然定律的现代概念。自然规律作为一种反映物质世界本质的客观存在，以自然定律的形式来表述，说明宇宙自然秩序是有规律可循，是可以得到重复观测和检验的，同时，可以有效地预言将来结果，并得到进一步检验。自然规律不是笼统的模糊的，而是可以使用概念和术语以定律的数学方程进行准确的表述。使用现代意义的自然定律概念的，开普勒是第一个；发展以观察和实验为科学方法的，伽利略是第一个，他由此发现了大量定律，并提出两个重要原则：观测是科学的基础，科学的目标是研究存在于物理现象之间的定量关系；笛卡儿第一次明确并严格表述了自然定律的概念：所有物理现象都受定律制约，这些定律在所有时间和所有地方都有效，服从这些定律并不意味着运动物体具有精神，只要给出初始条件，物体按照规律运动，可以准确预测物体运动的结果；牛顿在力学、天文学和光学方面的突出成就，使经典物理学逐渐成为包含当时很多物理现象与规律的知识体系，其中三大定律和万有引力定律很好地解释了当时的宇宙观测结果。

Fourth, he expounds on the second twist in human thought and understanding: God is still retained in the “mystery of being.”

第四，阐述人类思想认识的第二次曲折，上帝还保留在“存在之谜”中。

The great achievements of science led to the growth of continued rational thinking: since behind every change in physical phenomena, one can always find the laws of nature’s operation, then who makes these natural laws? Hawking believes: “With the renewed belief in the existence of natural laws, people attempted to reconcile those laws with the idea of God.” As previously mentioned, this was the view of scientists like Descartes and Newton. In reality, God still held the power to create and control the natural laws of the universe; God still remained in the realm of the “mystery of being.”

科学取得的巨大成就，导致人们继续理性思考的增长：既然物理现象变化的背后，总能找到自然运行的规律，那么谁来制定这些自然定律? 霍金认为：“随着重新相信存在自然定律，人们试图将那些定律和上帝的观念相调和”。如前已述笛卡尔、牛顿等科学家的观点。实际上，上帝仍拥有宇宙自然规律的创造与控制权，上帝仍自“存在之谜”领域中。

Fifth, it expounds the second milestone in the liberation of human thought from the shackles of theology.

第五，阐述人类思想摆脱神学束缚的第二个里程碑。

The nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system allowed Laplace to completely discard God and put forward scientific determinism. Hawking’s assessment of Laplace is that he “gave the state of the universe at one time, and the complete set of laws fully determines both its future and its past. This precludes the possibility of miracles or the active intervention of God.” He “is generally considered the first to clearly articulate scientific determinism” (p. 24). Laplace’s scientific determinism laid the ideological foundation for the subsequent development of science and constitutes the second milestone in the history of human thought in breaking free from the shackles of theology.

太阳系起源的星云假说，让拉普拉斯彻底地抛弃了上帝，提出了科学决定论。霍金评价拉普拉斯：他“给出宇宙在一个时刻的状态，定律的完备集合完全确定其未来和过去。这就摒除了奇迹或者上帝的主动作用的可能性”。他“通常被认为是清楚地提出科学决定论的第一人”。（p24）拉普拉斯的科学决定论，奠定了今后科学发展的思想基础，是人类思想史上摆脱神学束缚的第二个里程碑。

Sixth, it expounds how to understand the process of exploring the laws of nature and affirms the rationality of the laws of nature.

第六，阐述怎样理解自然定律的探索过程，认定自然定律的合理性。

The laws of nature, as the most rational explanation of nature, have gained general acceptance through the development of modern science. But how to understand them has been a matter of differing views. On how to understand the laws of nature, Hawking devotes considerable space to describing three important questions discussed in different ways by scientists, philosophers, and theologians: “What is the origin of the laws?” “Are there any exceptions to the laws, i.e., miracles?” and “Is it possible that there is only one set of laws?” (p. 24). The aim is to clarify how complex and tortuous the process of understanding natural laws has been. The traditional answer, relying on Christian theology, is that the laws are the work of God, but Hawking argues that “this is merely defining God as the embodiment of the laws of nature” and that “using God to answer the first question is merely replacing one mystery with another” (p. 23). “This book, based on the concept of scientific determinism, answers the second question by stating that there are no miracles or exceptions to the laws of nature” (p. 27). He is very certain that no “miracles” occur, including human free will. Nature can adjust itself, so it is sufficient to explain why it has persisted to the present without divine intervention. And to deal with complex problems like human free will, people have adopted the method of effective theories.

自然定律作为最合理的自然解释，经过近代科学发展，得到普遍认同。但怎样理解却认识不同。霍金在如何理解自然定律方面，用很大篇幅描述了科学家、哲学家和神学家，以不同方式讨论的三个重要问题：“定律的起源是什么? ”“定律存在任何例外即奇迹吗? ”“是否可能只存在一族定律? ”（P24）目的是阐明理解自然规律的过程是多么复杂与曲折。传统答案是相信基督教神学的答案——定律是上帝的杰作，而霍金认为“这只不过是将上帝定义为自然定律的化身”，“利用上帝来回应第一个问题，只不过是用神秘来取代另一个而已”。（p23）“本书依据科学决定论的概念，对第二个问题的答复是，不存在奇迹或者自然定律的例外。”（P27）他非常肯定地认为，没有“奇迹”发生，包括人的自由意志在内。自然可以自我调整，因此不用神的干涉就足以解释它为何维系至今。而处理像人有自由意志这样复杂问题，人们采用了有效理论的方法。

As for affirming the rationality of the laws of nature, Hawking says, “Aristotle and Plato, as well as Descartes and later Einstein, all believed that the principles of nature exist out of ‘necessity,’ that is, because they are the only logically reasonable rules.” This is a conclusion reached by humanity through millennia of exploration, the result of the application and selection of human reason. Acknowledging the rationality of the rules of law represents another advance in human thought.

至于认定自然定律的合理性，霍金说“不管是亚里斯多得还是柏拉图，正如笛卡儿以及后来的爱因斯坦都相信，自然的原理因出于‘必然性’而存在，也就是说，因为它们是仅有的逻辑合理的规则”。这是人们经过千百年探索的结论，是人类理性运用和选择的结果。承认定律规则的合理性是人类思想又一次进步。

The reason Hawking reviews this historical process is, in fact, to demonstrate how scientific rationality has continuously grown within the development of human thought and how it has displayed its great power in advancing the course of human civilization. With a scientific view of history, he does not shy away from analyzing the twists and turns and repetitions in the development of human thought — that is, how, constrained by historical limitations and the limitations of observational and mathematical tools, science has at times fallen back under the control of theology or been subjected to varying degrees of interference from theological ideas. This reminds us that the process of the development of human thought can only break through historical limitations and replace mystical faith with scientific rationality through an open, endless process of scientific exploration.

霍金之所以回顾这个历史过程，实际上在体现科学理性，在人类思想发展中如何不断生长，如何在推动人类文明进程中显示出伟大力量。他以科学的历史观，毫不回避地分析了人类思想发展的曲折与反复，即受历史局限、观测与数学手段的局限，科学出现重新回到神学制约中，或受到神学思想不同程度的干扰。提示我们：人类思想发展过程只能通过一个开放的、无止境的科学探索过程，才能突破历史的局限，以科学理性代替神秘信仰。

In theological explanations, the problem of the origin of the universe is God’s “Genesis” — merely a description of a miraculous story, which does not explain why things are the way they are or who created God. Essentially, using God as an explanation is explaining mystery with mystery; in reality, it explains nothing. When people are puzzled, saying “God arranged it” is either a sign of helplessness or laziness. Because God blocks the path of thought; people no longer delve deeper, and thus the progress of thought is halted. But not explaining does not mean the problem does not exist. The M-theory developed to the present day, however, is the result of continuous rational scientific thought, the latest explanation of the “riddle of existence,” and the most recent outcome of scientific exploration.

宇宙创生问题在神学解释中，是上帝的“创世纪”，这只是神奇故事的描述，没有解释为什么会是这样、谁又创造了上帝的问题。从本质上讲，以上帝作为解释，是以神秘解释神秘，实际是什么也没有解释。人们疑惑时，一句“上帝安排的”，要么是种无奈，要么是种懒惰。因为，上帝挡住了思索的道路，人们不再深究了，也就阻断思想的进步了。但是，不解释不等于问题不存在。发展至今的M理论，却是人们科学理性不断思考的结果，对“存在之谜”的最新解释，也是科学探索的最近结果。

(3) The Rationality of M-Theory

（3）M理论的合理性

First, it follows the principle of scientific determinism. By recalling this tortuous process, Hawking explains how humanity moved from millennia of ignorance to rational clarity, affirming that the laws of nature control the order and operation of the universe, and reaching the conclusion of scientific determinism rather than divine interventionism. He argues that “in fact, it is the foundation of all modern science and an important principle running throughout this book (*The Grand Design*). A scientific law is not a scientific law if it holds only when some supernatural being decides not to interfere” (p. 24). This not only demonstrates the rationality of M-theory as a scientific law of nature but also reveals Hawking’s pure scientific rationalism — excluding supernatural factors from the laws of nature.

第一，它遵循科学决定论原则。霍金以对此番曲折过程的追忆，说明了人类是如何从千百年的蒙昧走向理性的澄明，认定了自然规律控制着宇宙秩序和运行，得到的是科学决定论而不是神干涉论的结论。并认为“事实上，它是现代科学整体的基础，是贯穿本书（《大设计》）的一个重要原则。如果一个科学定律，只当某种超自然的存在决定不干扰时才成立，则不成为科学定律。”（P24）这既表明M理论作为科学的自然定律有其合理性，又表明了霍金纯粹的科学理性态度——把超自然因素排除在自然定律之外。

Second, the model-dependent realism it employs is a method that has been successfully tested and passed down through the history of science, and its theory possesses the characteristics of open exploration and testing. Looking back at the 400-year history of physics, theoretical models such as point masses, point charges, ideal gases, and simple harmonic waves, along with concepts of various interaction forces and fields, successfully established the edifice of classical physics, which well explains physical phenomena at macroscopic low speeds — that is, our everyday phenomena. With the establishment of atomic physics based on models of atomic structure (electron clouds and atomic nuclei), we entered the realm of microscopic high-speed motion of matter. Relying on particle models such as quarks, we built quantum physics, particle physics, and even modern cosmology, which form the newer parts of the edifice of scientific theory. These can well explain the phenomena of the microscopic world and the cosmic world observed by modern scientific instruments — cyclotrons and the Hubble Space Telescope. M-theory goes a step further, synthesizing existing effective theories to describe the picture of the origin and evolution of the universe, and it explains the astronomical observations we have already obtained. Its scientific predictions will continue to be tested by new observations until a large number of facts contradicting its predictions appear and a new theory replaces it. This objectivity and exploratory nature of M-theory also embody the rationality of a scientific theory.

第二，它使用的依赖模型实在论，是经科学史成功检验并传承下来的方法，其理论具有开放的探索与检验的特征。回顾400年来的物理史，以质点、点电荷、理想气体、简谐波等理论模型等，以各种相互作用力和场的概念，成功地建立起的经典物理学大厦，很好地解释了宏观低速运动的物理现象，也就是我们的日常现象。而随着以原子结构（电子云和原子核）模型建立的原子物理学，我们进入到物质微观高速运动领域，依赖诸如夸克等粒子模型，建立起量子物理、粒子物理乃至现代宇宙学，成为科学理论大厦新近的部分，它们能够很好解释现代科学仪器——回旋加速器和哈勃天文望远镜——所观察的微观世界与宇观世界的现象。M理论则在此基础上更进一步综合现有的有效理论，描述了宇宙创生与演化的图景，而且解释了我们已经获得的天文观测结果，它的科学预言还将继续接受新观察的检验，直到大量违背预言的事实出现，又有新的理论替代为止。M理论的这种客观性与探索性也体现了一个科学理论的合理性。

III. What Has *The Grand Design* Changed? — The Enlightenment It Offers Us

三、《大设计》改变了什么——给我们的启示

1. *The Grand Design* Brings a New Revolution in the View of the Universe — Fundamentally Eliminating God

1．《大设计》带来宇宙观的新变革——从根本上排除了上帝

When it comes to the nature of the universe and material particles, every major discovery in astronomy and physics has sent shockwaves through human culture. Copernicus’s heliocentric theory was once the liberation of natural science from theology. Kant and Laplace’s nebular hypothesis on the origin of the solar system opened the first breach in the 18th-century metaphysical view of nature. Modern cosmology, based on general relativity and quantum mechanics, has changed the flat, infinite view of cosmic space-time constructed by classical physics since Newton: space is curved by gravity, time slows down with speed, particles — whether microscopic or cosmic — exhibit wave-particle duality and uncertainty in time and position, and the Big Bang theory indicates that the universe had a beginning and a history of evolution. These have impacted people’s eternal and deterministic concepts. Now, in Hawking’s conception of the universe, the multiverse and alternative histories, along with the discarding of time factors related to God at the moment of the universe’s creation, have re-emerged as a picture of the cosmic world, completely breaking free from theological shackles on ultimate questions and depriving God of his last stronghold. From this worldview, the core concepts of our traditional culture will also change, inevitably bringing cultural and social impacts.

涉及到宇宙和物质粒子的本质时，天文学和物理科学每一次重大发现都给人类文化带来震撼。哥白尼的日心说，曾经是自然科学从神学中解放出来，康德和拉普拉斯关于太阳系起源的星云说，在18世纪形而上学的自然观上打开了第一个缺口。以广义相对论和量子力学为基础的现代宇宙学，改变了自牛顿以来经典物理学构造的平直无限的宇宙时空观，空间因引力而弯曲，时间因速度变慢，无论是微观的还是宇观的粒子具有波粒二象性，且出现时间和位置不确定性，而大爆炸理论则表明宇宙有一个起点，宇宙有了演变的历史。这些对人们永恒的确定性的观念产生冲击。现在，霍金的宇宙观念中，多重宇宙和可择历史，以及宇宙创生时抛弃了与上帝有关的时间因素，重新出现了一个宇宙世界图景，并在终极问题上完全摆脱了神学束缚，剥夺了上帝盘踞的最后领域。由此世界观，我们传统文化中核心观念，也将会改变，必然带来文化与社会的影响。

2. The Socio-Cultural Significance of *The Grand Design* — Encouraging the Growth of Scientific Rationality

2．《大设计》的社会文化意义——鼓励科学理性的增长

Humans are the intelligent beings who consciously use concepts to guide their actions. What governs our behavior are ideas composed of a series of concepts; ideas are the basic elements that constitute social culture. Among them, the concept of the universe is one of the core concepts in human social culture. It is a worldview concerning the laws governing the operation of the universe and the heavens and earth, occupying an important position in people’s system of ideas and serving as the ideological foundation that influences social culture. In today’s world culture, traditional supernatural beliefs and the worldview of modern scientific civilization coexist.

人是有意识使用概念而采取行动的万物之灵，支配我们行为的是由一系列概念组成思想观念，观念是构成社会文化的基础要素。其中关于宇宙的观念是人类社会文化中的核心观念之一，它是关于宇宙天地运行规律的世界观念，在人们的思想观念体系中占有重要地位，成为影响社会文化的思想基础。在当今世界文化中，传统的超自然信仰观念和现代科学文明的世界观并存。

Ancient Greece produced the scientific embryo of a view of nature, and Laplace’s scientific determinism were milestones in humanity’s two-fold liberation from the shackles of gods. On the basis of astronomical achievements, people hold that the universe is vast and boundless, composed of major star clusters, galaxies, stars, planets, satellites, and so forth, operating in an orderly manner at different levels, and we have already discovered many natural laws governing the motion of celestial bodies. Our Earth is merely a planet with life in the solar system, not the center of the universe. The scientific understanding of the universe, the Earth, and life also lets us know that they have undergone a process of continuous evolution. This is the general conception of the cosmic world. On this foundation, people’s understanding of God has shifted from a sacred belief that explains and controls everything to a traditional idol that no longer interferes with our universe or our daily lives.

古希腊产生了科学萌芽的自然观，拉普拉斯科学决定论的思想，是人类两次摆脱神的束缚的里程碑。人们根据天文学成果，认为宇宙广大无垠，由各大星团、星系、恒星、行星、卫星等等按照不同层次有序地运行，并且我们已经发现了很多宇宙行星运行的自然规律。我们地球只是太阳系中有生命的行星，不是宇宙中心。对宇宙、地球和生命的科学认识，也让我们知道它们经历了不断演化的过程。这就是对宇宙世界的一般观念。在此基础上，人们对上帝的认识，从它是解释和控制一切的神圣信仰，转变为不再干涉我们宇宙和我们日常生活的传统偶像。

Therefore, in modern society and culture, as science has continuously achieved successes, enhancing humanity’s ability to understand and transform nature and playing an increasingly important role in human social life, its social status has risen ever higher. Esteem for science and reason has increasingly become the mainstream social consciousness. The scientific worldview has influenced social behavior and value orientations, and more and more people tend to live secular, non-religious lives. In the pattern of social culture, scientific culture occupies an ever more important position. Meanwhile, the status of religious belief has declined, gradually retreating to a secondary place in social and cultural life, becoming one branch of traditional culture.

因此，在近代社会文化中，由于科学不断取得成就，提高了人类认识自然和改造自然的能力，在人类社会生活中发挥越来越重要的作用，其社会地位越来越高，崇尚科学和理性越来越成为主流的社会意识，科学的世界观影响了社会行为和价值取向，越来越多的人倾向过世俗化的非宗教的生活。在社会文化格局上，科学文化越来越占据重要地位。而宗教信仰的地位下降，逐渐退居到社会文化生活的次位，成为传统文化的一支。

However, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, the New Age movement and new religious movements arose widely in Western countries. Obscurantism reviving religious belief, mysticism promoting supernatural phenomena, and postmodernism negating science formed three currents of thought that exerted enormous influence on society and the public, generating doubt about and even a negative attitude toward modern science, rekindling the fervor of religious belief, and fiercely challenging the scientific rationality of modern civilization. The decades-long controversy in the United States over “intelligent design theory” (the belief that a special intelligent designer designed the universe to make our existence possible — in fact a reprint of creationism), which triggered multiple lawsuits, is a real case. In the past ten to twenty years, modern secular humanists and Chinese atheists, in response to the prevalence of these three currents of thought globally, have called for a new Enlightenment, urging that scientific rationality be restored to the central place in modern culture, encouraging people to judge and act according to a scientific worldview, to live non-religious (or atheist) lives, and to rely on science in seeking human well-being in reality.

然而，从上个世纪60～70年代开始，新时代运动和新宗教运动在西方国家普遍兴起，复兴宗教信仰的蒙昧主义、宣传超自然现象的神秘主义、否定科学的后现代主义等形成三种思潮，在社会与公众中产生巨大的影响，对现代科学产生怀疑乃至否定态度，重新点燃了宗教信仰的狂热，激烈地挑战了现代文明的科学理性。美国“智能设计论”（相信有位特殊的智慧设计者设计了宇宙使我们存在的观点，实际上是神创论的翻版）问题争论几十年，引发了多场官司，就是一个真实的案例。近一二十年，现代世俗人文主义者和中国无神论者，针对全球三种思潮流行情况，呼唤开启一场新的启蒙运动，让科学理性重新回到现代文化的主位，鼓励人们以科学的世界观去判断行事，过非宗教（或无神）的生活，依靠科学寻找人类现实中的福祉。

Should we continue on the path of scientific exploration, or return to the old road of obscurantist and mystical belief?

到底是继续走科学探索道路，还是重新回到蒙昧与神秘的信仰老路上呢?

The answer in Hawking’s *The Grand Design*, from the perspective of scientific prediction, responds to the claims of theology in recent years, especially on ultimate questions concerning the role of God and the “intelligent designer.” These questions also touch on the background of the discussion of the relationship between science and religion. Because over the past thirty years, with the questions raised by modern cosmology, the study of the relationship between science and religion by scholars at home and abroad has formed a wave of enthusiasm. Organizations and scholars, papers and works, courses and conferences studying this issue from historical and contemporary perspectives have all shown a surge. The questions focus on: “Does the Big Bang cosmological model prove God?” “Is there an intelligence that designed us?” “Can science and religion be reconciled?” “Can religion guide science?” All these arise in answering the “riddle of existence.”

霍金《大设计》的答案，从科学预言角度，回应了近些年神学的声称，特别是在终极问题上主张上帝和“智能设计者”作用的问题。这些问题又涉及到科学与宗教关系的讨论背景。因为近30年来，随着现代宇宙学提出的问题，国内外学者对科学与宗教关系问题研究形成一股热潮，从历史和现实的角度进行研究的组织和学者、论文与著作、课程与会议都呈激增势态。问题聚焦在“大爆炸宇宙模型是否证明了上帝? ”，“是否存在一个设计了我们的智慧者? ”，“科学与宗教是否能融合? ”，“宗教能否指导科学? ”这些都是在回答“存在之谜”中产生的。

These questions have become practical issues of great public concern. Theological answers directly provide the theoretical foundation for the three currents of thought prevalent worldwide. Therefore, they have already sparked fierce debate in academia, with theologians, scientists, and philosophers all participating and expounding their respective views. Hawking’s theoretical predictions concerning the origin of the universe, the generation of all things, and the meaning of life’s existence, in theoretical terms, adopt a purely naturalistic and atheistic attitude, clarifying theological confusion, clearing the fog of people’s understanding, steering the discussion of the relationship between science and religion onto a more rational scientific path, weakening the theoretical confidence of those who advocate fervent belief, and greatly disappointing the advocates and supporters of “intelligent design theory” and “religion guiding science,” which covertly promote “creationism.” At the same time, Hawking’s answer provides the public with more intellectual reference points.

这些问题成为备受公众关注的实际问题，神学答案直接为世界范围内流行的三种思潮提供了理论基础。因此，已在学界引发了激烈的争论，神学家、科学家和哲学家都参与其中，阐述各自的观点。霍金理论预言的宇宙起源、万物生成、生命存在意义的世界观念，在理论上，以一种纯粹的自然主义的无神论的态度，澄清了神学迷惑，廓清人们认识的迷雾，把科学与宗教问题关系的讨论引到更加理性的科学道路上，消弱了那些主张狂热信仰的理论底气，令那些变相推行“神创论”的“智能设计论”、“宗教指导科学”的鼓吹者和支持者非常失望。同时，霍金的答案为公众提供了更多的知识上的参考。

Will Hawking’s theoretical prediction that there is no God or intelligent designer change the worldview of traditional belief? We shall wait and see. Because the conception of the cosmic world, as the core of culture, will influence a series of original conceptions, including beliefs, and subsequently affect people’s modes of thinking and behavior. In public opinion, Hawking’s theoretical prediction is beneficial to the growth of scientific rationality and beneficial to the voice of atheism. Hawking himself, through *The Grand Design*, is playing a role in popularizing science in this regard. This is a major contribution of this book in influencing social and cultural concepts.

霍金没有上帝和智慧者设计的理论预言，会改变传统信仰的世界观念吗? 我们拭目以待。因为宇宙世界的观念作为文化内核的观念，将影响一系列原有的观念，包括信仰观念，继而影响人们的思维方式和行为方式。在社会舆论上，霍金的理论预言有益于科学理性的增长，有益于无神论的声音。而霍金本人通过《大设计》，正在发挥这方面的科普作用，这是这本书在影响社会文化观念上的一大贡献。

IV. Evaluation

四、评价

*The Grand Design*, centered on the theme of understanding life, all things, and the existence of the universe, presents a new picture of the creation and evolution of the cosmos; in scientific language, it answers the “riddle of existence”; in a unique way, it expresses his understanding of the meaning of God and clarifies theological confusion. Works like this, scientifically exploring the origin of the universe, are rare in today’s book market. Relative to the scarcity of recent works promoting atheism and the large number of translated theological works, it is precious.

《大设计》围绕理解生命、万物和宇宙存在的主题，展示了一幅宇宙创生与演化的新场景；以科学的语言，回答了“存在之谜”；以独特方式，表达了他对上帝含义的理解，澄清了神学的迷惑。像这样科学探索宇宙起源的著作，在当今图书市场上凤毛麟角，相对近年无神论宣传著作稀少，而大量翻译介绍神学论著的状况，它是弥足珍贵的。

*The Grand Design* offers us new inspiration, both in terms of its intellectual content and its method of thinking.

《大设计》无论是在知识内容上，还是在思维方法上，都给了我们新的启迪。

With a vast historical span, it displays the intellectual path along which people have tirelessly questioned the essence and meaning of “existence,” expounding that the progress of human civilization is due to the unremitting exploration of nature, thereby gradually forming a scientific judgment of the generation of the universe. This process highlights the brilliance and power of scientific rationality. His natural conclusion about the meaning of the universe and our existence shows that the creation and evolution of the universe need not implore God. Throughout the book, Hawking adheres to the principle of scientific determinism, which will benefit the public who read this work in establishing a scientific worldview. It is believed that *The Grand Design* will have a positive impact on the public’s scientific attitude and on global secular public opinion, and will serve to cool the frenzy among some in academia who advocate mysticism and belief.

它以巨大的历史跨度，展示了人们孜孜不倦地追问“存在”的本质与意义的思想道路，阐述了人类文明之所以进步，是因为进行了不懈地对自然的探索，从而逐渐形成对宇宙生成的科学判识，这个过程彰显了科学理性的光辉与力量。他阐述宇宙和我们存在意义的自然结论，表明了宇宙创生与演化不必祈求上帝。霍金通篇遵循了科学决定论的原则，对读到此著作的公众树立科学的世界观，会有所裨益。相信《大设计》对公众的科学态度以及全球世俗化的舆论，会有正面的积极影响，对学界中某些鼓吹神秘与信仰的狂躁起到降温作用。

After reading *The Grand Design*, one cannot help but marvel at how meticulously rigorous Stephen Hawking’s logic is when expressing his outstanding scientific ideas, and how vivid his metaphors are when explaining abstruse cosmological knowledge. As one of the great contemporary thinkers, his profound intellectual content and special talent in expression are fully displayed in *The Grand Design*. This is a rare popular reader on the scientific worldview and the spirit of scientific rationality.

拜读《大设计》后，不禁令人感叹，史蒂芬•霍金表达其卓越科学思想时，思维逻辑如此缜密；而阐释艰涩难懂的宇宙学知识时，其形象的比喻是如此之生动。他作为当代伟大思想家之一，其深刻的思想内涵和表现手法上的特殊才华，在《大设计》中表现得淋漓尽致。这是一部难得的科学世界观和科学理性精神的普及读本。

References:

参考文献：

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