Is God Dead?(2/10)

Christianity and Judaism have always had more than their share of men of little faith or none. "The fool says in his heart, 'there is no God,' " wrote the Psalmist, implying that there were plenty of such fools to be found in ancient Judea. But it is not faintness of spirit that the churches worry about now: it is doubt and bewilderment assailing committed believers.

Particularly among the young, there is an acute feeling that the churches on Sunday are preaching the existence of a God who is nowhere visible in their daily lives. "I love God," cries one anguished teenager, "but I hate the church." Theologian Gilkey says that "belief is the area in the modern Protestant church where one finds blankness, silence, people not knowing what to say or merely repeating what their preachers say." Part of the Christian mood today, suggests Christian Atheist William Hamilton, is that faith has become not a possession but a hope.

Anonymous Christianity. In search of meaning, some believers have desperately turned to psychiatry, Zen or drugs. Thousands of others have quietly abandoned all but token allegiance to the churches, surrendering themselves to a life of "anonymous Christianity" dedicated to civil rights or the Peace Corps. Speaking for a generation of young Roman Catholics for whom the dogmas of the church have lost much of their power, Philosopher Michael Novak of Stanford writes: "I do not understand God, nor the way in which he works. If, occasionally, I raise my heart in prayer, it is to no God I can see, or hear, or feel. It is to a God in as cold and obscure a polar night as any non-believer has known."

Even clergymen seem to be uncertain. "I'm confused as to what God is," says no less a person than Francis B. Sayre, the Episcopal dean of Washington's National Cathedral, "but so is the rest of America." Says Marty's colleague at the Chicago Divinity School, the Rev. Nathan Scott, who is also rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Hyde Park: "I look out at the faces of my people, and I'm not sure what meaning these words, gestures and rituals have for them."

Hydrogen & Carbon. To those who do formulate a God, he seems to be everything from a celestial gas to a kind of invisible honorary president "out there" in space, well beyond range of the astronauts. A young Washington scientist suggests that "God, if anything, is hydrogen and carbon. Then again, he might be thermonuclear fission, since that's what makes life on this planet possible." To a streetwalker in Tel Aviv,

"God will get me out of this filth one day. He is a God of mercy, dressed all in white and sitting on a golden throne." A Dutch charwoman says: "God is a ghost floating in space." Screenwriter Edward Anhalt (Becket) says that "God is an infantile fantasy, which was necessary when men did not understand what lightning was. God is a cop-out." A Greek janitor thinks that God is "like a fiery flame, so white that it can blind you." "God is all that I cannot understand," says a Roman seminarian. A Boston scientist describes God as "the totality of harmony in the universe." Playwright Alfred muses: "It is the voice which says, 'It's not good enough' —that's what God is."

1966年时代周刊最佳封面——上帝死了吗？(2/7)

（2/7）

基督教和犹太教的相通之处总比同那些几乎没信仰或根本没信仰的人要多。赞美诗作家写道“愚人打心底认为没有上帝。”他影射早在古朱迪亚（译注：耶稣在此被罗马统治者钉死的十字架上。）就发现很多这样的愚人了。但是教会中仍有很大一股势力担忧：疑虑和困惑正在动摇那些虔诚的信徒。

在年轻人中间，一股敏感的情绪极为突出。教会在星期天的布道：向他们传播上帝是存在的，而这个上帝从未在他们的日常生活中出现。“我爱上帝，”一个少年苦恼的喊道，“但是我讨厌教会。”神学家Gilkey 说“信仰成了一个地点，在现代新教教堂里，人会发现空虚、宁静，人们不知道说得是什么，只是一遍遍的重复牧师的话。非基督教徒William Hamilton建议道“今天的基督徒对信仰已不再那么痴迷，信仰对他们只是种寄托。”

匿名基督徒

为了寻找生命的本质，有些信徒开始绝望地诉诸于精神病治疗、禅宗或是毒品。而另外一些则只保留了对教会名义上的拥戴，过着献身于民权和美国和平队的“匿名基督徒”生活。对年轻的罗马天主教徒们来说，教会的教条已经基本失去其力量。斯坦福大学的哲学家Michael Novak 写道：“我不理解上帝，也不理解他的处事方式。如果，偶尔我诚心祷告，我不是在向一个我能看到、听到、触到的神祈祷，而是向一个远在极夜里的神祈祷，而那个极夜就像不信神的人所知道的一样寒冷和黑暗。

甚至连神职人员也开始动摇

“我搞不清上帝是什么。”不止一个人表示有和Francis B. Sayre（华盛顿国家大教堂的主教）同样的困惑。“但是其它美国人也是如此。”芝加哥神学院马蒂的同事，Nathan Scott牧师，他是海德公园(英国伦敦的海德公园因常被用作政治性集会场所而著称)圣保罗大教堂的神职人员，他说“我看着我信众的脸庞，我不确定这些言语、手势、仪式对他们有什么意义。”

氢和碳

人们对上帝究竟是何物的解释五花八门，他似乎是一切，从空中的气体到太空中不可见的某种“名誉主席”，当然他不属于宇航员范畴。一个年轻的科学家说：“上帝如果一定得是什么东西的话，就是碳氢化合物。再有的话，可能是高热原子核反应裂变的产物。因为这个星球上的生命就是这么产生的。”一个在特拉维夫（以色列港口城市）的站街妓女来说“总有一天上帝会带我远离肮脏。他是慈悲的天父，身披白袍，头戴金冠。”一个荷兰女佣说“上帝是个漂在空中的鬼魂。”电影剧作家Edward Anhalt (Becket) 说：“上帝只是个幼稚的幻想，在人类还不理解什么是闪电的时候倒是有用。上帝不过是逃避。”一个希腊看门人认为“上帝就像一团耀眼的火焰，亮如白昼，会刺瞎你的双眼。”罗马神学院的学生说“上帝就是所有我无法理解的事物。”一个波士顿科学家将上帝描述为“宇宙中一切和谐的总合。”剧作家阿尔弗雷德沉思后说：“他是说着‘不够好’的一种声音，上帝就是这么回事儿。”

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