From Einstein’s Private Frankness to Hawking’s Public Denial

I

一

For historical reasons, Einstein’s views on religion sometimes appear as if looking at flowers through a mist—seemingly ambiguous or even contradictory—and have thus sparked considerable debate from various quarters. However, in a private German-language letter dated 3 January 1954, replying to the fellow Jewish philosopher Eric Gutkind, he spoke frankly about religious questions: “…the word ‘God’ is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.” The formulation here is remarkably candid and direct, a departure from his usual manner. Yet this rare and precious letter long remained unknown to the outside world. It was not until 17 May 2008, when the letter was publicly auctioned in London, that it attracted global attention.

由于历史的原因，爱因斯坦关于宗教的看法有时会出现雾里看花、疑似模棱两可甚至矛盾对立的表述，因此也引发过各方面的不少争论。但是，他在1954年1月3日回复给亦为犹太裔的哲学家艾瑞克•古特金的德文亲笔信中私下谈到宗教问题时，却说得很直白：“……‘上帝’这个名词对我来说不过是一种措词，也是人类软弱的产物，〈圣经〉则汇集了许多卓越，却很原始的传奇故事，这些故事相当幼稚。”这里的提法十分坦率、直截了当，而一改常态。不过这封难得、珍贵的信件长期以来并不为外界所知。直到2008年5月17日，该信在伦敦公开拍卖，才引起了世人的关注。

Intriguingly, sixty-four years later, Stephen Hawking—often called the “contemporary Einstein”—publicly denied “God” in his book *The Grand Design*, formally published on 9 September 2010. The book was co-authored by Hawking and physicist Leonard Mlodinow. It argues that physics can provide explanations without “a benevolent creator who made the universe for us,” contending that “because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing,” and that “spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to … set the universe going.” Hawking also emphasized this understanding in remarks before and after that time. In a television interview in June 2010, he pointed out that “God was originally the embodiment of natural law … to personify it is completely wrong,” and that “religion is based on the authority of the victor, while science is based on observation and reason. Science will undoubtedly triumph over religion, because only science can solve problems.” On 10 September 2010, in an interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” he stated that “God may exist, but science can explain why the universe does not need a creator,” that “gravity and quantum theory cause the universe to spontaneously create itself from nothing,” and that “science is increasingly able to answer questions that once belonged to the realm of religion. The scientific account is complete; theology is unnecessary.” (Quoted from a report in Hong Kong’s *Sing Tao Daily* on 13 September 2010.)

耐人寻味的是，事隔64年，被誉为“当代爱因斯坦”的斯蒂芬•霍金在2010年9月9日正式出版的《伟大的设计》一书中，则公开否定“上帝”了。该书由霍金和物理学家伦纳德•姆勒迪诺合作写成。书中称物理学可以在没有“为我们创造出宇宙的仁慈的造物主”的情况下作出解释，认为，“由于有万有引力这样的定律存在，宇宙就能够从虚无中自己创造出自己”，“自发创造正是宇宙和人类并非凭空而来的原因，没有必要祈求上帝来……使宇宙开始运转”。在此前后的言谈中霍金也强调了这样的认识。2010年6月他在一次电视谈话中指出，“上帝本来应该是自然法则的一种化身……将其人格化是完全错误的”，“宗教建立在权威制胜的基础上，而科学则是建立在观察和推理的基础上，科学无疑会战胜宗教，因为只有科学才能解决问题”。2010年9月10日，他在美国电视新闻网（CNN）“拉里•金现场采访”节目中谈到“上帝可能存在，但是科学可以解释，为什么宇宙不需要一个创世者”，“引力及量子论导致宇宙自发性地从虚无中产生”，“科学愈来愈足以回答过去一向属于宗教领域的问题，科学的说法就很完整了，神学是没有必要的”。（转引自2010年9月13日香港《星岛日报》报道。）

Now that Hawking has expressed his views on “God” so clearly and unequivocally, it is no wonder that the famous atheist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins praised him, saying, “Darwinism drove God out of biology … (in physics) Hawking has now delivered the fatal blow.”

如今，霍金对“上帝”的看法表达得如此清晰、明确，难怪著名的无神论者、进化生物学家理查德•道金斯会赞赏说，“达尔文主义将上帝从生物学中赶了出去……（在物理学上）现在霍金给出了致命一击。”

II

二

The life of theoretical cosmologist Hawking is highly “legendary.” He was born on 8 January 1942, which was the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death and also the 300th anniversary of Newton’s birth. Of course, this much-discussed coincidence is nothing more than pure chance.

理论宇宙学家霍金的生平是非常富有“传奇色彩”的。他出生于1942年1月8日，这一天正值伽利略逝世300周年，还是牛顿诞辰300年纪念日。当然这种为人津津乐道的巧合也只不过是纯粹的偶然而已。

At the age of 21, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. This disease is called Lou Gehrig’s disease in the United States and motor neuron disease, or MND, in the United Kingdom. According to estimates from the ALS Association, people with this disease typically live only two to five years. Now, forty-eight years later, Hawking has successfully continued to battle the illness that has left him completely paralyzed; in his words, he has “adapted quite well to his condition,” even though he can only sit in a wheelchair, relies on a computer for writing, and uses a speech synthesizer to communicate with others. It is under these difficult conditions that he has achieved the most outstanding academic accomplishments to date in the fields of cosmology and general relativity. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974, received the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1988, was awarded an honorary knighthood as a Companion of Honour in 1989, and currently holds the highly prestigious Lucasian Professorship at Cambridge University, a position once held by Newton and Dirac.

霍金21岁时被诊断出患有肌肉萎缩性脊髓侧索硬化症，简称ALS。这种病在美国称卢加雷病，在英国称运动神经元病，或MND。根据ALS协会的估计，患上这种疾病的人只能活2年至5年。如今48年过去了，霍金依然成功地在与使他全身瘫痪的病魔进行较量，用他的话说“对自己疾病适应得相当好”，尽管他只能坐在轮椅上，写作要依赖电脑，与人说话要用语言合成器。正是在这样艰难的条件下，他在宇宙论和广义相对论研究方面取得了学术界迄今最杰出的成就。1974年成为英国皇家学会会员，他获得过1988年沃尔夫物理奖，1989年被授予大英帝国荣誉爵士称号，目前在剑桥大学还担任着牛顿和狄拉克做过的十分崇高的卢卡逊讲座教授职务。

Hawking is also a popular science writer. His representative work is *A Brief History of Time*, published in 1988, which has sold 25 million copies to date and been translated into nearly 40 languages. In the science fiction series *Star Trek*, he even enthusiastically played himself, playing bridge with Newton and Einstein. He was married twice and had three children.

霍金还是科普作家，其代表作是1988年出版的《时间简史》，至今累计发行量已达2500万册，被译成近40种语言。在科幻系列剧“星舰奇航记”中他甚至兴致勃勃地饰演自己，与牛顿和爱因斯坦在一起打桥牌。他结过两次婚，有三个孩子。

III

三

Precisely because Hawking is a scientist with enormous social influence, his views on religion have naturally attracted particular attention from both academia and religious circles. Although he was not a religious believer, there has been no shortage of various arguments using him to bolster “faith in God.” They insist that Hawking “has raised the religious implications of scientific theory,” that Hawking’s concept of time “clearly has strong religious overtones,” and that Hawking’s words “shatter the myth that science and theology are unrelated.” Their basis is the following sentences Hawking wrote in *A Brief History of Time*: “Where did the universe come from? How and why did the universe begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, what will happen?” and “However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God.” (Stephen Hawking, *A Brief History of Time*, translated by Xu Mingxian and Wu Zhongchao, Hunan Science and Technology Press, 1996 edition.)

正因为霍金是位有巨大社会影响的科学家，所以他的宗教观自然也引起了学术界和宗教界的格外关注。虽然他不是宗教信徒，但还是不乏各种议论，拿他来为“信仰上帝”张目。他们硬是说，霍金“提出了科学理论的宗教含义”，霍金的时间概念“显然具有浓厚的宗教意蕴”，霍金的话“粉碎了科学和神学这两者毫无相关之迷思”，其依据则是霍金在《时间简史》中写的如下这些字句：“宇宙从何而来？宇宙如何开始，又为什么会这样开始？它会有末日吗？如果有的话，那又会发生什么？”“然而，如果我们确实发现了一套完整的理论，它应该在一般的原理上及时让所有人（而不仅仅是少数科学家）所理解。那时，我们所有人，包括哲学家，科学家以及普普通通的人，都能参加为何我们和宇宙存在的问题的讨论。如果我们对此找到了答案，则将是人类理智的最终极的胜利——因为那时我们知道了上帝的精神。”（史蒂芬•霍金：《时间简史》，许明贤、吴忠超译，湖南科学技术出版社1996年版）

Should Hawking’s words above really be interpreted that way? The answer is naturally no. Although, in order to “be understandable by everyone,” Hawking was relatively cautious and moderate in expressing his “view of God,” often weighing his words carefully. However, if one reads the relevant comprehensive discussions in his book without prejudice or deliberate distortion, it is not difficult to understand Hawking’s true intention.

果真应该那样解读霍金的如上话语吗？回答自然是否定的。尽管为了“让所有人理解”，霍金在表达自己的“上帝观”时显得比较谨慎、温和，往往会字斟句酌。但是，如果不带有偏见或是有意歪曲的话，能够认真阅读他书中有关的全面论述，那也不难理解霍金的真正用意。

In 1981, Hawking attended a cosmology conference organized by the Jesuits in the Vatican. He wrote: “The Catholic Church had made a bad mistake with Galileo when it tried to lay down the law on a question of science, declaring that the sun went round the earth. Now, centuries later, it had decided to invite a number of experts to advise it on cosmology. At the end of the conference the participants were granted an audience with the pope. He told us that it was all right to study the evolution of the universe after the big bang, but we should not inquire into the big bang itself because that was the moment of Creation and therefore the work of God. I was glad then that he did not know the subject of the talk I had just given at the conference—the possibility that space-time was finite but had no boundary, which means that it had no beginning, no moment of Creation. I had no desire to share the fate of Galileo, with whom I feel a strong sense of identity, partly because of the coincidence of my being born exactly 300 years after his death!” Here, Hawking’s meaning is clear: he disagreed with Pope John Paul II’s sermon on God’s creation, and he was glad the pope did not know his talk about “no moment of Creation,” joking that he “had no desire to share the fate of Galileo.” Interestingly, during the audience, the pope, in order to speak “as an equal” with Hawking, who was in a wheelchair, even “condescended” to kneel down.

1981年，霍金参加了在梵蒂冈由耶稣会组织的宇宙学会议，他写道：“天主教会试图对科学的问题立法，并宣布太阳是绕着地球运动时，对伽利略犯下了大错误。几个世纪后的现在，他决定邀请一些专家就宇宙问题提出建议。在会议的尾声，所有参加者应邀出席教皇的一次演讲。他告诉我们，在大爆炸之后的宇宙演化是可以研究的，但是我们不应该去过问大爆炸本身，因为那是创生的时刻，因而是上帝的事务。那时候我心中暗喜，他并不知道，我刚在会议上作过的演讲的主题——空间-时间是有限而无界的可能性，就表明着没有开端，没有创生的时刻。我不想去分享伽利略的厄运。我对伽利略之所以有一种强烈的认同感，其部分原因是刚好我出生在他死后的300年！”在这里，霍金的意思很清楚：他不同意教皇约翰-保罗二世有关上帝创生的说教，他还庆幸教皇当时不知道自己有关“没有创生时刻”的演讲，调侃“不想分享伽利略的厄运”。有意思的是，在接见代表时，教皇为了与坐在轮椅上的霍金“平等”交谈，甚至“屈尊”蹲跪下来。

Hawking invited the famous atheist Carl Sagan to write the “Introduction” for *A Brief History of Time*. Sagan’s understanding of Hawking’s thought was apt: “This is also a book about God… or perhaps about the non-existence of God. The word God fills these pages. Hawking embarks on a quest to answer Einstein’s famous question about whether God had any choice in the creation of the universe. Hawking is attempting, as he explicitly states, to understand the mind of God. And this makes the conclusion of all his efforts all the more unexpected: a universe with no edge in space, no beginning or end in time, and nothing for a Creator to do.” What is “the mind of God”? “God was originally supposed to be an embodiment of the laws of nature”—that is Hawking’s answer.

霍金邀请著名的无神论者卡尔•萨根（Carl Sagan）为《时间简史》写了“导言”，萨根对霍金思想的理解是中肯的：“这又是一本关于上帝……或许是关于上帝不存在的书。处处充满了上帝这个字眼。霍金着手回答爱因斯坦著名的关于上帝在创生宇宙时有无选择性的问题。正如霍金明白声称的，他企图要去理解上帝的精神。这使得迄今所有努力的结论更加出人意外：一个空间上无边缘、时间上无始无终、并且造物主无所事事的宇宙。”什么是“上帝的精神”？“上帝本来应该是自然法则的一种化身”，这就是霍金的回答。

Hawking’s “view of God” is closely linked to his objective and profound reflections on the philosophical view of the cosmos. In the first chapter of *A Brief History of Time*, he carefully examines and judges thinkers from Aristotle to Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Kant, and up to the modern era. At the end of the book, he laments: “In the eighteenth century, philosophers considered the whole of human knowledge, including science, to be their field and discussed questions such as whether the universe had a beginning. However, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, science became too technical and mathematical for philosophers, or for anyone except a few specialists. Philosophers have so narrowed their scope of inquiry that Wittgenstein, the most famous philosopher of this century, said: ‘The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language.’ What a comedown from the great tradition of philosophy from Aristotle to Kant!” (Stephen Hawking, *A Brief History of Time*, translated by Xu Mingxian and Wu Zhongchao, Hunan Science and Technology Press, 1996 edition.) Setting aside other issues for the moment, it is not difficult to see from this the tendency toward spontaneous materialism in Hawking’s thought.

霍金的“上帝观”与他对于哲学宇宙观的客观深刻思考是密切关联的。在《时间简史》第一章，从亚里士多德到哥白尼、开普勒、伽利略、牛顿、康德等，直至现代，他都进行了认真的考察和评判，在全书的结尾，他感慨到：“在18世纪，哲学家将包括科学在内的整个人类知识当作他们的领域，并讨论诸如宇宙有无开始的问题。然而，在19世纪和20世纪，科学变得对哲学家，或除了少数专家以外的任何人而言，过于技术化和数学化了。哲学家如此地缩小他们的质疑的范围，以致连维特根斯坦——这位本世纪最著名的哲学家都说道：‘哲学仅余下的任务是语言分析。’这是从亚里士多德到康德以来哲学的伟大传统的何等的堕落!”（史蒂芬•霍金：《时间简史》，许明贤、吴忠超译，湖南科学技术出版社1996年版）在此，姑且不论其他，从这里倒是不难看出，霍金思想中的自发唯物论倾向。

IV

四

Hawking was born into a typical British middle-class family; both his parents graduated from Oxford University. His father was a doctor, and his mother stayed at home to raise the children. As a young child, Hawking was very fond of toy trains, ships, and the like, and he often curiously took them apart to figure out how they worked. As a teenager, he built models and designed games himself. Years later, he recalled that these activities came from his desire to explore things and control them. He lamented that it was only after he began his doctoral studies that this desire was satisfied through research in cosmology. At the age of fourteen, Hawking began to show some mathematical talent; although he did not spend much time on mathematics, he still achieved good results. His father hoped Hawking would also study medicine, but he did not much like biology, finding that discipline too descriptive, not abstract enough, and not fundamental enough. At seventeen, he entered University College, Oxford. Since there was no mathematics major, Hawking chose physics. At that time, although there were many new discoveries in the study of elementary particles in the microscopic realm, there was a lack of appropriate theory, which did not attract Hawking much. In the macroscopic realm, however, Einstein’s general theory of relativity already existed, so he wanted to study cosmology. He felt that elementary particle physics was not as abstract as cosmology; the former was somewhat like biology, where scientists could only classify various particles, much like botany. However, at that time no one at Oxford was researching this field. Therefore, after graduating from Oxford, Hawking went to Cambridge University for graduate studies, where Professor Fred Hoyle was the most outstanding cosmologist in Britain at that time. From then on, Hawking threw himself into the study and research of cosmology with full desire and passion.

霍金出生在一个典型的英国中产家庭，父母都毕业于牛津大学。父亲是名医生，母亲在家相夫教子。幼年时，霍金很喜欢玩具火车、轮船等等，常常好奇地把它们拆开，想弄清楚它们是怎么开动的；少年时还自己制造模型、设计游戏。多年后，他回忆说，那些都来自他对探究事物和控制它们的渴望。他感慨自己从开始攻读博士之后，这种渴求才在宇宙学研究之中得到满足。霍金在14岁的时候开始显露出一些数学天分，他用在数学上的时间虽然不多，但却能取得好成绩。父亲希望霍金也能学医，但他不大喜欢生物学，觉得那个学科叙述得多，不够抽象，不够基础。17岁那年，他进了牛津大学的大学学院。因为没有数学专业，霍金就选择了物理学。当时微观领域的基本粒子研究虽然有不少新发现，但是缺乏适当的理论，对霍金的吸引力不大；而宇观领域的研究已经有了爱因斯坦的广义相对论，因此他想钻研宇宙物理学。他觉得基本粒子物理不如宇宙学抽象，前者有些像生物学，科学家们能做的只不过是和植物学一样把各种粒子分门别类。不过，在当时的牛津没有人研究这个领域。所以，从牛津毕业后，霍金去了剑桥大学攻读研究生，那里的弗雷德•霍伊尔教授是英国那个时代最杰出的宇宙学家。从此，霍金就满怀渴望、充满激情地投入到宇宙论的学习和研究之中。

At the age of twelve, one of Hawking’s teenage friends converted to Christianity, which also influenced Hawking and other friends, sparking their interest in religion. They gathered together to discuss faith and their understanding of God, trying to comprehend and explore the mysteries of life and the world. This interest lasted for over half a year. For a time, Hawking read the Bible thoroughly, and by the end of his third year in school, he had even won the school’s theology prize. But Hawking never fell into fanatical religious belief, displaying the rational spirit in his thought.

12岁那年，霍金的一个少年朋友信奉了基督教，这对霍金和其他小伙伴也产生了影响，使他们对宗教发生了兴趣。他们在一起聚会，讨论信仰和对上帝的认识，试图理解和探究生命和世界的奥秘。这种兴趣持续了大半年。霍金一度熟读《圣经》，当上完三年级的时候，他还获得过学校所颁发的神学奖。但是霍金始终没有陷入狂热的宗教信仰，显示了自己思想中的理性精神。

Later, a trend of “extrasensory perception” emerged in society, becoming a hot topic and attracting public attention. This led Hawking and his friends to become fascinated with “extrasensory perception” as well. They gathered in small rooms and conducted many experiments, once trying to use the power of the mind to control dice throws. Hawking even thought for a time that the basis of extrasensory perception was more reasonable than Christianity, and he foolishly wanted to prove the existence of “mind control.” However, this interest did not last long. After attending a lecture on experimental research into extrasensory perception, many doubts arose in his mind. Because when the speaker demonstrated to the audience: if the experiment followed scientific procedures and methods, the expected results were not obtained; but if the experiment achieved ideal results, then it was found that the experimental design had problems. Hawking’s interest in extrasensory perception gradually turned into contempt for it. He realized that so-called “extrasensory perception” was ridiculous, and believing in such things only indicated insufficient analytical ability. Thus, from his youth, Hawking had a preliminary understanding of and a certain immunity to supernatural phenomena. This provided a good starting point for his later scientific research and the formation of a correct worldview. He would no longer believe in any form of mysticism or metaphysics. For example, some people tried to build bridges between mysticism and modern physics, and some thought there were similarities between Eastern religions and quantum mechanics, chaos theory, etc. Hawking disagreed. He said: “People are fascinated by Eastern mysticism only because they hadn’t heard of it before and find it novel, but as a true description of reality, it is worthless. If you look at Eastern mysticism, you will find some things that seem to be hints of modern physics or cosmology, but are actually meaningless.” (Quoted from Zhang Youyi, *Exploring the Mysteries of the Universe: Hawking*, Anhui People’s Publishing House, 2001 edition, p. 123.)

后来，社会上出现过一股“超感知觉”的风潮，成为热门话题，引起了大众的注意。这使霍金他们又迷上了“超感知觉”。他们聚集在小房间里做了不少实验，曾试图用意念力来控制掷骰子。霍金甚至一时认为，超感知觉的基础比基督教更合理，痴心想证明“意念力控制”的存在。不过，这种兴趣持续时间不长。有一次霍金听了关于超感知觉实验研究的讲演以后，他头脑中产生了很多疑问。因为当主讲人向听众演示时：如果实验遵循科学的程序和方法进行，就得不到预想的结果；而实验若能取得理想的结果，则发现实验的设计却存在着问题。霍金对超感知觉的兴趣逐渐转变成了对它的轻蔑。他认识到，所谓的“超感知觉”是滑稽可笑的，相信这类事情只能说明分析能力不够而已。可见，霍金从年青时代开始，对超自然现象就有了初步理解和一定的免疫力。为他往后从事科学研究和形成正确的宇宙观提供了良好的开端。他不会再相信任何形式的神秘主义和玄学。比如，有些人试图在神秘主义与现代物理学之间架设桥梁，有人认为东方的宗教与量子力学、混沌理论等之间有着相似之处，霍金则不以为然。他说：“人们对东方神秘主义着迷，只是过去人们没有听说过它们，感到新奇而已，但作为一种对现实的真实的描述，它是毫无价值的。如果你纵观一下东方神秘主义，你就会发现有些东西似乎是现代物理学或宇宙学的暗示，而实际上则是毫无意义的。”（转引自张友谊：《探索宇宙奥秘的思想家：霍金》，安徽人民出版社2001年版，第123页。）

Although Hawking was not a religious believer, he was relatively cautious and moderate in expressing his “view of God.” This was closely related to his wife, Jane Wilde. After Hawking entered Cambridge University, his condition gradually worsened. The following year, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. For a time, he was very pessimistic, even despairing. It was during this time that he was fortunate to meet Jane. She was full of youthful vitality, energetic, enthusiastic, and optimistic, deeply attracting Hawking. She also liked Hawking’s witty conversation and his stubborn, eccentric personality, and she deeply sympathized with his unfortunate illness. They interacted frequently, and their relationship continued to develop. Jane’s appearance helped Hawking shake off his pessimistic and despairing mood, allowing him to see the joy and meaning of life again, and to continue his studies with confidence, despite the difficulties. Jane’s entry into Hawking’s life was a turning point in his life’s journey. They shared hardships and joys, accompanying each other for nearly thirty years of life’s journey.

霍金虽然不是宗教信徒，但在表达自己的“上帝观”时却比较谨慎、温和。这是与他的妻子简•怀尔德有密切关系的。霍金进入剑桥大学，病情逐渐严重，第二年被诊断出患了肌肉萎缩性脊髓侧索硬化症以后，有一段时间他十分悲观、甚至绝望。正是在这段时间里，他有幸结识了简。她充满青春活力、朝气蓬勃、热情、达观，深深吸引着霍金。她也很喜欢霍金机智的谈吐和倔强、怪异的性格，对他不幸患病十分同情。他们经常来往，关系不断发展。简的出现使霍金摆脱了悲观绝望的情绪，重新看到了生活的乐趣和意义，虽然艰难但是充满信心地继续他的学业。简闯入霍金的生活，是霍金生命征途的一个转折点，他们共患难、同欢乐，一直相互陪伴，走过了近30年的人生旅程。

Jane Wilde understood from the very beginning that Hawking’s illness carried great risks and that the consequences were unpredictable; even if treatment were possible, it could only control the condition to some extent and could never bring a complete cure. Yet she still resolutely decided to link her own fate with Hawking’s. Some were deeply moved and admired this, while others could not understand it. Jane, however, went her own way, saying: “I decided what I wanted to do, and I did it. He was already ill when I first got to know him; I don’t know what a physically sound Stephen would be like.” Jane was born and grew up in a Christian family, which cultivated strong religious feelings. She once said that without her devout faith in God, she would not have married Hawking, would not have possessed an optimistic spirit, would not have been able to get through the difficulties, and could not have lived under such circumstances. Hawking, for his part, was very grateful to Jane. In the acknowledgments of *A Brief History of Time*, he wrote: “The help and support I have received from my wife Jane, my children Robert, Lucy, and Timmy have enabled me to have a fairly normal life and a successful career.” (Stephen Hawking, *A Brief History of Time*, translated by Xu Mingxian and Wu Zhongchao, Hunan Science and Technology Press, 1996, p. 7.) Therefore, he was especially respectful of Jane’s religious beliefs and feelings, and when speaking of God he avoided using extreme words. He hoped that through his efforts he could gradually make “everyone understand” his views on religion, and this “everyone” naturally included Jane. Even after Hawking and Jane divorced in 1990, this did not change. Thus, it is not difficult to understand why Hawking never publicly declared himself an atheist and always downplayed the conflicting relationship between science and religion. However, in order to understand the origin and evolution of the universe and to clarify the question of “why we and the universe exist,” Hawking had to conduct research with a scientific attitude. When science came into contradiction with God, he could not actually reconcile the two; he could only stand on the side of science.

简•怀尔德一开始就清楚地知道霍金得的病风险很大，后果难以预料，即使能够治疗也只是某种程度控制病情而已，并不可能彻底治愈。但她还是毅然决心把自己的命运与霍金联系在一起。对此，有人深表感动和钦佩，也有人却理解不了。简则是我行我素，她说：“我自己决定了要做什么，就这样做了。我和他一开始认识的时候他就已经得病了，我不知道一个体格健全的斯蒂芬是什么样的。”简出生、成长在一个基督徒家庭，培养了浓厚的宗教感情。她曾经这样说过，如果没有对上帝的虔诚信仰，就不会嫁给霍金，就不会有乐观的精神，也就无法度过难关，不可能在这种环境下生活下去。而霍金对简是十分感激的，他在《时间简史》的感谢词中写道：“我从我的妻子简、我的孩子罗伯特、露西和梯米那儿得到的帮助和支持，使我能有一个相当正常的生活和成功的事业。”（史蒂芬•霍金：《时间简史》，许明贤、吴忠超译，湖南科学技术出版社1996年版，第7页。）因此，他格外尊重简的宗教信仰和情感，谈到上帝时不会使用一些过激的言词。他希望通过他的努力，能逐渐使“所有人理解”他对宗教的看法，这“所有人”中理应是包括简的。即使霍金与简在1990年离异以后，这一点也没有改变。因此，我们就不难理解为什么霍金没有公开声称自己是无神论者，总是淡化科学与宗教之间相互冲突的关系方面。然而，霍金要搞清楚宇宙的起源和演化，弄明白“为何我们和宇宙存在”的问题，他就必须以科学的态度从事研究。当科学与上帝发生矛盾的时候，他实际上不可能进行调和，而只有站在科学一边。

From *A Brief History of Time* to *The Grand Design*, Hawking moved from an inner denial of God to a public denial of God, showing that his view of God had become more confident. From Einstein’s private candor to Hawking’s public denial, this demonstrates that the social influence of science grows ever deeper over time, and that outstanding scientists become increasingly attuned to atheist thought.

从《时间简史》到《伟大的设计》，霍金从内心否定上帝到公开否定上帝，表明他的上帝观更加成竹在胸了。从爱因斯坦私下的直白到霍金的公开否定，显示了科学的社会影响日久弥深，杰出科学家对无神论的思想越来越心领神会。

Online editor: Jia Fei

网络编辑：嘉扉