The God-Idea

　　「神」的概念

　　The reality or validity of belief in God is based on man”s understanding capacity and the maturity of the mind.

　　對「神」的真實性或正確性，要基于理解力和成熟的心識。

　　The Development of the God-idea

　　To trace the origin and development of the God-idea, one must go back to the time when civilization was still in its infancy and modern science was still unknown. Primitive people, out of fear of and admiration towards natural phenomena, had believed in different spirits and gods. They used their belief in spirit and gods to form religions of their own. According to their respective circumstances and understanding capacity different people worshipped different gods and founded different faiths.

　　探討「神」的起源和對「神」的信仰，要從人類的原始時代和科學文明發展的時代開始。原始人因恐懼而崇敬大自然的各種現象，從而信仰各種神或精靈。人類利用對神或精靈的信仰，發展成各式各樣的宗教。按照他們個別對環境的理解，崇敬個別不同的神，從而奠定了各種不同的信仰。

　　At the beginning of the God-idea, people worshipped many gods--gods of trees, streams, lightning, storm, winds, the sun and all other terrestrial phenomena. These gods were related to each and every act of nature. Then gradually man began to attribute to these gods, sex and form as well as the physical and mental characteristics of human beings. Human attributes were given to the gods: love, hate, jealousy, fear, pride, envy and other emotions found among human beings. From all these gods, there slowly grew a realization that the phenomena of the universe were not many but were One. This understanding gave rise to the monotheistic god of recent ages.

　　「神」的觀念，起源于人類多神的崇拜。如：樹、水、光、風暴、太陽以及地球其他自然現象。這些「神」彼此關聯，也聯系了整個自然現象。然而，人類給予「神」的各種形象和性別，是基于人類自己的生理與心理的特征。「神」開始擬人化，「神」會愛、會恨、會嫉妒、會懼怕、會驕傲、會羨慕，「神」開始具備了人類各種身、心的特征與情緒。從這些「神」中，我們或許會以爲，宇宙間存在的這種現象並不是太多。人類從理解于這個共同的根源，産生了後來「一神論」的思想──萬能的造物者的思想。

　　In the process of development, the God-idea went through a variety of changing social and intellectual climates. It was regarded by different men in different ways. Some idealized god as the King of Heaven and Earth; they had a conception of god as a person. Others thought of god as an abstract principle. Some raised the ideal of Supreme deity to the highest heaven, while others brought it down to the lowest depths of the earth. Some pictured god in a paradise, while others made an idol and worshipped it. Some want so far as to say that there is no salvation without god; no matter how much good you do, you will not receive the fruits of your actions unless you act out of a faith in god. The Atheists said, ”No” and went on to affirm that god did not really exist at all. The Skeptics or Agnostics said, ”We do not or we cannot know.” The Positivists say that the God-idea was a meaningless problem since the idea of the term god ”was not clear”. Thus there grew a variety of ideas and beliefs and names for the God-idea: pantheism, idolatry, belief in a formless god, and belief in many gods and goddesses.

　　「神」的觀念，經過社會與人類心智的變化而展開。不同的人，有不同的鑒定方式，有些人把「神」理想化，成爲天堂或地上的國王，他們認爲「人」可以是「神」的概念或化身。有些人認爲「神」是抽象的。某些人把超然的「神」提升到最高的天界，某些人把「神」帶到最下層。當人類開始把「神」當偶像膜拜時，就把「神」安置在天堂裏。有些人甚至認爲：「沒有『神』就不能得救，不管你做了多少好事，也無法得到好的果報，除非你相信『神』的存在。」無神論者，堅決的否定了「神」的存在，他們認爲：「對『神』而言，我們不知道，我們也無法知道。」實際主義則認爲：「『神』的觀念，是一個沒有意義的問題，因爲『神』的觀念和意義『不清不楚』。」因此，産生了很多爲「神」的觀念和信仰而下的定義，泛神論、偶像崇拜論、無形論、性別論等等，不一而足。

　　Even the monotheistic god of recent times has gone through a variety of changes as it passed through different nations and people. The Hindu god is quite different from gods of other faiths. Thus numerous religions came into existence: each one differed greatly from the other in the end, and each one says that ”God is One”.

　　即使連一神論的上帝信仰，也因爲時間、區域和人文而改變，印度教的「天帝」，就和基督教的「上帝」有所不同。基督教的「上帝」又與其他的「神」有所不同。所有的宗教都個別的存在，也和其他的宗教有所不同。但是，每一個宗教都宣稱「神」只有一個。

　　The God-idea and Creation

　　「神」與創世紀：

　　As each religion came into existence and developed around the God-idea, religion developed its own particular explanation of creati…

《「神」的概念 The God-Idea》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…