Chapter 17 17

17 "What about the ending?" "Later?" Angela shook her head. "That's it, that's it. My father sent his discovery to the American Institute in Jerusalem. The brown fragments are so brittle that they had to be kept in a damp environment and scrubbed clean with a brush made of camel hair dipped in alcohol, Study carefully under plate glass. Although parchment is the official paper and the quality of the paper is first-rate, the condition of the manuscripts written on it is abysmal. The Gospels of James, made of reed sticks dipped in soot and The ink mixed with water was written on poor-quality papyrus paper. The color of the paper has turned brown-black, and some are completely black. The corners of the pages have peeled off, and some places have been bitten into small pieces hole. James wrote in Aramaic, with no punctuation, and many spelling errors. He used about 800 words in total. The scripture critics in Jerusalem attested to the authenticity of the manuscript, and they even A newsletter was published in this academic journal announcing the discovery. These experts sent my father to Prof. Aubert at the Paris Institute to find out whether the parchment was really from 30 AD. , whether the manuscript on the papyrus is really from before AD 62. For the rest, you can ask Professor Oberth, Steve, this whole discovery is really an incredible thing."

"Sounds more like the crystallization of your father's wisdom, Angela." "The discovery, yes. But it's a miracle of God that the manuscript survived." She paused, her green eyes shining brightly on Randall, "Did they allow you to see the manuscript, Steve? " "In Amsterdam, I watched it one night. After watching it, it shocked me a lot." "Why?" "Well! It made me decide to do one thing. I called my wife and agreed to divorce her, which is what she has always wanted." Angela nodded. "Yes, I can understand. It affected me too, but in a different way. I hate Dr. Fernando Tura for obstructing and slandering my father. I swear to remember it forever, And to avenge my father. I set out to find something that would blackmail him, expose him, hurt him and destroy him. It was not difficult, and I finally found it. Dr. Tulla, a respectable married man, Pretending to be very religious, but secretly having sex with a young lad. When I told my father that I had found the evidence and was determined to use it to get revenge on Dr. Tulla, my father stopped me and taught me to With love, as Christ taught, when someone slaps you on one cheek, slap him on the other cheek. He also showed me the manuscript on parchment and the translation into Italian based on the Gospel of James. History Tiff, that night, I cried, I learned pity and compassion. I abandoned the plan of getting revenge on Dr. Tulla forever, and I gave the other side of my face. Since then, I feel that if all forgive If we treat people with kindness, kindness, and forgiveness, instead of fighting each other and intrigue, we will be able to live in peace and happiness."

"I'm not as sure as you are. I wish I were. I'm still—well, figuring my way." Angela smiled. "You'll find it, Steve." Randall turned the recorder off and stopped recording. "The first recording is finished. I guess your father must still have a lot of experience." "Yes, there are many details, one afternoon is too short. And there are pictures, we have many pictures from the excavation. You must see them. You stay in Milan tonight, or stay here for another day , okay?" "I would love to stay. But we have a very tight schedule. I'm going to Paris tonight. Then to Frankfurt and Mainz tomorrow night, and then back to Amsterdam the next night or the next morning." Randall felt truly in love Angela, he didn’t want to leave her. "Angela, the material you have given me - exactly what I want - will be of great value to us, and it will do your father the honor he deserves. But I must see you again, and I have A suggestion, I just happen to have an open publicity budget. I can hire whoever I want. You can be my consultant, can you come to Amsterdam? We'll pay for it and pay you a salary."

Angela smiled happily. "I was just wondering if I should help you?" "Now my request has been made." "I've promised you too. When do you want me to go to Amsterdam?" "While I was there. Three days later, as for your salary, Angela—" "I don't want a salary. I love Amsterdam. My wish is to help my father get the honor he deserves. I'd like to do something for this new Bible. And..." Randall waited for her next words, he restrained himself, and then he encouraged, "And what?" "E voglio essere con te, stefano, e basta."

"What's the meaning?" "And, I want to be with you, Steve, that's all." Steve Randall flew from Milan to Paris yesterday evening.On the plane, he was preoccupied with Angela and himself.He didn't know why he was so fascinated by a girl he had just met and didn't know anything about. Randall stayed at the L Hotel, a delightful hotel.The reason why this place attracted him so much was simply that, as he wandered, he noticed that it had a plaque next to the gate, which commemorated Oscar Wilde.Oscar Wilde lived here until his death in 1900. The halls and corridors were noisy, full of fashionable young people, and the air was filled with jazz.Feeling irritable, Randall walked out of the hotel and onto the street.He saw a coffee shop, although it was also filled with fashionable young people and filled with loud jazz music, but this time he didn't mind.He finished his hamburger and steak, sipped red rose wine, and continued to fantasize about how he and Angela would be reunited in Amsterdam.

He didn't erase Angela's shadow from his mind until he returned to the single room of L Hotel and opened Professor Henry Aubert's file. It is already morning.Half an hour ago, Randall called a taxi to meet Henry Aubert at his work place. It was a cool morning in Paris, and there were still a few stars twinkling faintly in the sky.After Randall got off the taxi, some doubts and uneasiness suddenly appeared in his heart.Angela Monti, a layman talking about archeology is one thing, and Professor Aubert, a scientist explaining the authenticity of the manuscripts on parchment and papyrus found in Ostia Antica, It's another story.Although Randall had seen the appraisal process in advance, he didn't understand when it came to specific issues.He hoped Oberth would be patient with him, for he was likely to ask as many questions as a child.

His apprehensions were groundless.In fact, for the last ten minutes, Professor Henry Aubert treated him as patiently as a child full of doubts. At first, Randall thought the Frenchman would be quite difficult to deal with, but that was not the case.He was quite tall, but well-proportioned, about 45 years old.He is a man who is very particular about clothes.He had pomaded hair, a Gallic face, slender eyes, a haughty manner, and spoke English with perfect fluency.But when Randall showed interest in his work, his unattainable majesty and aristocratic air disappeared without a trace.For Oberth, work is the whole of his life, and everything else is insignificant.

Oberth begins with a series of half-apologetic complaints to Randall that his wife Gabriel—who considers herself a discerning decorator—has transformed his utilitarian metal-furnished office into this one. Kind of a Louis XVI vitrine look.Then he led Randall through the corridor to the laboratory of the Radiation Carbon Identification Department. Along the way, Randall prepared the tape recorder, and Oberth began to explain the whole process of carbon-14 identification in the most popular language. "This was originally discovered by Dr. Willard Libby, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960 for this. Through this magical method, ancient bones and wood chips can be more accurately measured. , The age of the fragments of papyrus can be traced back to 60,000 years ago. Everyone knows that since there is life on the earth, any living thing in this world has been hit by cosmic rays from outer space .Because of this impact, the nitrogen will become radioactive carbon 14 atoms.Anything that is alive will absorb this carbon 14 atoms in a different way until it dies.

"After a person, animal or plant dies, the carbon atoms in its tissue will slowly weaken and decrease, and this rate is predictable. It is known that after an organism dies, in 5568 years this long process , it will lose 1/2 of the carbon-14 atoms in its body. Based on this knowledge, Dr. Libby thought that if the amount of carbon-14 in the dead matter and its weakened products can be measured, then the weakened or disappeared radioactivity The amount of carbon in the body can be calculated. In this way, by counting the amount of carbon lost, it is possible to know when the object last absorbed carbon while it was alive. Thus, Mr. Randall, how much the object died Years, the age of the object, and the age it existed in can be calculated.”

Randall kind of understood this complicated process. "Dr. Libby invented these measurements?" "Yes, he created the so-called carbon-14 clock, the Geiger calculator method of measuring how much carbon is lost in the body of a thing after it loses life. This gave the scientific community a long-awaited Identification method. Now, we can finally know when a piece of carbon was formed by prehistoric cavemen after burning wood, and the age of animals in the fossils. From a small piece of wood, it can be measured that the house has experienced How many years. As far as I know, Professor Libby made 10,000 experiments. By this method, he confirmed that a pair of Indian sandals found in a cave in Oregon has a history of 9,000 years; The discovery of wood proves that the pharaoh died in 2000 BC; the linen cord of the Dead Sea Scroll found in the Qumran cave proves that the scroll was written between 168 BC and 233 AD, possibly in AD About 100 years ago. On the other hand, the bones of the Pelttang Man found in the gravel pits of the Sussex Fields have always been considered to be prehistoric people. Later, Dr. Kenneth Oakley used the fluorine test to show that Pelt The Tetang bones are not ancient, but modern. Dr. Libby confirmed Dr. Oakley's opinion with the carbon-14 method, showing that it was nothing more than a deception or a hoax."

They are in the lab at this time.On the table, the liquid in the heating test tube was bubbling, and the Geiger calculator was running regularly, making a tick, tick, tick. "Now, Mr. Randall," said Professor Oberth, "you know how we can prove the authenticity of the parchments found in Ostia Antica and the Gospel of James. Allow me to briefly Let me show you how it works.” He led Randall to two separate but connected metal instruments sitting in front of several bookshelves.To Randall, these things were like a pair of metal storage cabinets adorned with mysterious and incomprehensible contraptions, the small metal instrument with an instrument panel above and a shelf below, on which two bell.It looked as if the test tubes were connected by a shelf to the larger apparatus with a complex Geigerd calculator in the middle. "This is the radiocarbon identification instrument used to prove Professor Monty's discovery," said the French chemist. "When Professor Monty came here five or six years ago and asked me to do the final decisive test, it was He was told that he had to bring a small sample of the real papyrus and parchment he had found. Dr. Libby asked for about 30 grams, which is an ounce of flax fiber, to date the Dead Sea Scrolls. We now use The method of carbon identification has been much improved since then. Dr. Libby originally made solid carbon and smeared it in such a cylinder. That method required many valuable ancient materials. Because after so A long time of improvement, as I mentioned earlier, now we only need a little raw material." "Professor Oberth, how much papyrus and parchment did you order from Professor Monty?" The French scientist smiled slightly. "Fortunately, only a small amount is needed, because we have to burn it. I'm not sure if Professor Monty will give us a little more. I need a piece of 3 grams of carbon and 10 grams of wood to test. To test Monty Professor's discovery, I asked for 10 grams—about half an ounce—of parchment and 12 grams of papyrus, and 12 grams of other materials." "You burned them?" Randall asked, putting the recorder closer to the scientist. "Not immediately," replied Professor Aubert, "in the beginning, each sample must be cleaned of any extraneous carbon which has become contaminated by physical or chemical changes after the death of the cells of the object. " "You mean contamination from hydrogen or atomic bomb explosions?" "No, those won't do anything to things that are dead," said Oberth. "I have thoroughly cleaned every sample that Professor Monty sent, removing any that might contaminate it and affect the test results." deposits. After this step was completed, I burned each sample of papyrus and parchment in a stream of oxygen until a heap of ashes remained. The carbonic acid from the combustion process, having been purified and dried, was Put it in this Geiger calculator. The calculator has a capacity of one liter." "Less than two pints?" "Yes," said Professor Aubert, "as you can see from the way this instrument is made, the most important thing is that we have to remove any possible interference and show us a fake number instead of External radiation that causes false calculations. We put Professor Monty's papyrus and parchment ashes into test tubes, and started testing." When it comes to his subject, Professor Oberth seems to lose his mind.He began to explain the complex testing process to Randall.He talked about the reinforcement chains surrounded by mercury columns, the impetus of Geiger's calculator and the corresponding calculator's thrust put together very coincidentally, cosmic rays and gamma rays. Randall was confused.But Oberth's words were recorded on tape.Randall secretly decided that once Lori Cook had transcribed them, he would find someone in Amsterdam to explain them further to him. "Well, I see," he said insincerely, "how long did it take for all the tests to be completed, Professor?" "Two weeks. But that was almost six years ago. Now we have pretty advanced calculators that can do this test in one night. But Professor Monty's test took two weeks. " "What did you end up with?" "We were able to date, from samples of papyrus and parchment, when they existed, were written and were used, within 25 years." "What age is that?" "I am delighted to be able to tell Professor Monty that the parchment is from A.D. 30 through our radiocarbon devices. The Gospel of James is from A.D. 62. In short, I You can tell Professor Monty with certainty that the most advanced scientific instruments of the twentieth century have proved this fact, sir, the manuscript on the parchment is from the period when Petronas announced the death sentence of Christ Jesus, and the papyrus The manuscript was written while James was alive. The discoveries of Ostia Antica are indeed authentic and not forged." "No doubt?" Randall asked. "Absolutely not." Randall turned off the tape recorder. "Professor, everything you do will help us spread the word about this new Bible." "I am very pleased to cooperate with you," Professor Oberth looked at his watch. "My wife and I have an appointment for lunch. After that, I have another errand. Mr. Randall, are you free to join us?" Shall we have lunch?" "I don't want to bother..." "No interruption, we can talk about something else, I'll be glad." "Thanks, as a matter of fact, I'm free until the evening train to Frankfurt." "Oh, you're going to see Herr Karl Henning. You'll find he understands things better than we do." Oberth had already started leading Randall out of the lab. "If you don't mind, let's go to the Paris cathedral first and give them the test results of the portrait of Jesus. Then, we will meet Madame Aubert at the Café de Clany. It will be a pleasant lunch .” Then they boarded Professor Aubert's new car and drove across the Seine to the Paris Cathedral.He struggled to control his speed the entire way.At last they reached the square in front of the Cathedral of Paris.A guard knew Oberth and immediately found him a place to park. At the main entrance on the west side of the church, Oberth left Randall.He told Randall that it would take less than a minute or two to hand over the result report to the priest. Randall originally wanted to go into the church to have a look, but when he thought that Professor Aubert would be back soon, he dismissed the idea, still standing under the sun, watching the tourists coming and going from all over the world, within a few minutes, Professor Aubert returned to his side. "Did you see that stone over the gate?" said the professor. "I've found it particularly interesting since my association with the International New Testament. You know, of course, that the portrait of Jesus when he was alive or The statue doesn't exist because the Jews - the first Christians were the Jews - they considered it blasphemous to picture or make a statue of Jesus - Jewish law forbids all idolatry. Of course there is a picture of Jesus in the Vatican and legend has it that Painted by Luke, done by angels. But that's total bullshit, I think the earliest picture of Jesus is the one found in the catacombs, done around AD 210. Now if you look up to Look up..." Randall looked along Professor Aubert's fingers.He saw a painting carved on the wall of the Paris Cathedral. An angel was crowning the Virgin Mary. Christ Jesus, also wearing a crown, stood beside him, holding a cane in his left hand, praying for her. "It's called the Coronation of the Virgin," continued Aubert, "and it was done in the thirteenth century. It's a typical, ridiculous portrait of Jesus. None of the painters knew what Jesus looked like. So they're ridiculous. They painted Jesus so handsome to beautify him. After people read the Gospels of James and know what he really looked like, they will be amazed at the painting. What will they do with all those false portraits What? Maybe they will do what people did in the French Revolution. The revolutionaries thought that the statues of the Old Testament kings in the Paris cathedral were the statues of the kings of France, so they destroyed the statues. Maybe It won't be long before this scene will be repeated again and those false pictures of Jesus will be replaced by what Jesus really looked like. A Semitic nose, a disfigured face, a lame leg. It will be better this way, I believe in the truth." Randall and Professor Oberth left the church, returned to the square, and drove the car back into the street.Randall looked enviously at the Frenchman who was leisurely browsing and reading in the bookstore next to the street. They soon turned into the broad St. Michael's Boulevard. After 10 minutes, finally found a parking place.Professor Aubert led Randall to a quaint café on the corner of the boulevards St. Michael and St. Chomoni.It looked as if that was where all the traffic and people coming from the left bank converged.Under the green canvas canopy of the cafe are three rows of pale yellow wicker chairs and round marble tables.Randall saw the words: Dee Clooney's Café. "It's one of my wife's favorite cafés," said Professor Oberth. "It's the center of the left bank. It's full of young people. Across the street—see that black iron fence? There's A park in Paris built from the ruins of Rome destroyed more than 300 years ago. Well, apparently Gabriel wasn't here." He glanced at his watch. "We're a little early, Mr. Randall, where would you like to sit, inside or outside?" "Of course it's outside." "I agree." Most of the tables were empty.Professor Oberth chose a table with three wicker chairs in the back row, and beckoned Randall to come and sit beside him.Once a seat had been selected, Oberth called for a waiter in a white uniform. "Let's order lunch when Gabriel arrives," he said to Randall. "Now let's have an aperitif." The waiter came over. "I'll have a gin," Oberth said to Randall. "Two copies," Randall said. "Two glasses of gin," ordered Oberth to the waiter. Oberth asked Randall for a pack of cigarettes, but Randall declined.He took out his pipe.Oberth stuffed his cigarette into a long mouthpiece and they both started smoking.The scientist stretched out his legs and watched the passing crowd with interest, looking completely relaxed for the first time. After a while, he rubbed his nose, let out a puff of smoke, and turned his head to Randall, "I was just thinking," said Professor Aubert, "that I should be the one who confirmed the authenticity of those two manuscripts." Sexuality, and the responsibility to tell the world about that fact is incredible." "Why do you think that?" Randall asked. "Because I have never been a religious person," Professor Oberth said frankly, "even to this day, any religious beliefs I have are unorthodox. But I admit that everything that happened-I mean My small role in the preparation of the new Bible -- it affected me deeply." Randall was hesitant and curious. "Can you explain in what respect, Professor?" "It changed my appearance. It obviously affected my relationships with people. If you're really interested..." "very interested." Aubert began to recall, "I grew up in Lyon as a loose Catholic, very loose. My parents were teachers, and they had only a pitiful respect for religion. In fact, they both Free-thinking, rationalist. I always remember that the next book we had after the Bible at the time was - The Story of Jesus by Ernest Rainey. Forgive me - I must say It was a sensational book that said that the four Gospels were nothing but legends and that the miracles of Christ did not stand up to scientific scrutiny and were nothing but myths. The story of the resurrection of Jesus was Mary Magda Rina made it up. When I say that you can imagine my youth. But at the end of the day, I can no longer be in this paradoxical, almost schizophrenic position.” "When was that?" Randall asked.The aperitif has been served.While drinking, he waited for Oberth's answer. "After I went to polytechnic to study radio. Then, I studied chemistry at university. Once I became a trained scientist, I completely turned away from my religion. I thought religion was a lie, and I became A cold-blooded animal. You know how it is when one discovers new perceptions, one becomes intentional about abandoning others. Once I decide to give up my religion and continue my scientific path, I intend to just worship and believe in the lab What comes out of it. In fact, what those people can see, feel, hear or logically accept. This has been the case since I left school. I work and live only for the present, the present earth I am not interested in the future. My only belief is truth—and God is not a fact, and the Son of God is not a fact, and hell and heaven are not a fact." Oberth paused, took a sip of his wine, and smiled inconspicuously. "Speaking of heaven, I think about it now. At that time, I even used my scientist's logic to attack heaven. I once wrote a short article for our alumni journal a few years ago, in which from a scientific point of view Analyzed the possibility of going to heaven. I would say that I cite statistics on the actual size of heaven. That was written by John in the book of Revelation. 'The angel measured the city with a reed , 150 miles. Its length, breadth, and height are equal'. If a person wants to stand a cone of 10 square feet after he arrives in heaven, then you can know how many people can be accommodated in heaven. But since John gave According to our information, the number of people who will die and enter heaven will exceed the capacity of heaven by many times. In other words, heaven will never accommodate them. In fact, heaven is already overcrowded, don’t you think so?” Randall laughed. "Fantastic. Very clever." "Smartness was mistaken for cleverness, and in the end I was screwed. While my scientific teachings were admired by others, my knowledge of the Bible became worse and worse. In the following issue of the Alumni Journal, Published a sarcastic letter from a theology professor of the Catholic Society of Paris. He criticized me for not reading the New Testament carefully. The heaven John pictured was not in heaven but on earth—'I Saw a new heaven and a new hell' - this imaginary paradise, the New Jerusalem, the real Israel, with 12 gates, rivers, and lodging only for 'the children of the 12 tribes of Israel'. Simply put, Spacious enough to meet needs. And without causing a population explosion. Well, it taught me a lesson to avoid judging the Bible by scientific standards. But I still don't believe there is such a place as heaven." "I think, and I doubt there are many people who don't believe it exists," Randall said. fully understand the Bible." "There are still too many people who believe in heaven, in an afterlife, in God, in superstition. They believe in these things not through rational belief, but out of fear. They fear that disbelief will lead to disaster. They dare not Ask questions. Mr. Randall, I am always inquisitive. I will not believe what science and reason cannot explain. This skepticism has caused many serious problems in my marriage and in my married life in general. " "How long have you been married, Professor Aubert?" "Exactly 9 years as of last month. My wife Gabriel comes from a very orthodox, strict, God-fearing Catholic family, and like her surviving parents, my wife is also an unquestioning religious A believer. Her parents, especially her father, dominated her. Her father was one of the wealthiest industrialists in France and a member of the religious organization of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. In fact, Gabriel's father was a religious One of the famous leaders in the world. The religious organization he leads is called Opus Del." Speaking of this, he glanced at Randall, "Haven't you heard of Opus Del ?” "I—I don't think I've heard of it." "Let me tell you briefly. In 1928, in Madrid, the capital of Spain, a lawyer was converted to religion. His name was Jones Maria Escriva. He founded the religious organization Opas de, the Under the instigation of Catholicism, the organization began to print early religious books, and semi-publicly advocated the re-ruling of the Western world with religion. This organization requires its members to follow the Catholic life to strictly demand themselves, and strictly follow its rules and regulations. This This kind of religious thought started from Spain and spread to all over the world, including France, the United States, and more than 70 countries in the world. Until the Vatican had to recognize it and began to lead this organization. Does anyone know how many members Opus De has? Maybe 10,000, maybe 20,000, trying to infiltrate their influence into business, economics, government and politics, education, especially schools that educate young people. This teaching they advocate Comfort the poor to be content with the status quo and follow or follow the Lord's broad-minded leadership. The teaching also says that rich people must believe in the virtues of poverty and should keep it simple so that they can be rich forever. Members must obey the Lord's will, Actions that are not God's will can only be taken when it is extremely critical. They must also have a pure spiritual world, even when they marry or have children. They must keep their purity. Because they believe that purity does not mean celibacy, To be chaste is not to be unmarried. Now you can smell the religion of my father-in-law and my wife Gabriel, do you understand what I said above?" "Yes, I see." Randall replied.He wondered why his host was shaking all this out to his guests. "The wife of my faith, Opus De, lives in Lyon." Professor Aubert continued, "We have adapted to each other. Except for some small conflicts, Gabriel and I are basically in harmony. But in In recent years, a big problem has gradually emerged between us, and that is because of children. The Roman Church said that we need to have children, Opus De also said that we need to have children, and my father-in-law also agrees that we have children. "Genesis " said: 'For the survival, prosperity and development of the earth, there must be children', so my wife needs to have children, not one or two children, but many children. On the contrary, I am a scientist. Scientist with deep research on threats. I know the real problems of overpopulation, I have always been in favor of trying to control the growth of the planet's population, and I am also in favor of organizations that take punitive measures to control population growth. Therefore, I Refusing to have many children, not even wanting to have one. The problem was exacerbated a year ago when, under strong pressure from her parents, my poor wife insisted that we should have children. I refused to do so, so my The old father-in-law told Gabriel to go to the Vatican to annul our marriage. My wife didn't want to do that but she wanted kids and I didn't want to annul my marriage but I didn't want kids. Frankly, I hate children so much, but I can't help it. If I don't want children, the marriage will be dissolved. I've been putting it off, not knowing what will happen? I hope there is a proper way to resolve the conflict and save my marriage. " Randall wanted to hear the ending of the following, so he remained silent, continuing to play the role of a passive, listening listener. A few seconds later, Professor Aubert continued: "Ten months ago, a French publisher of the International New Testament came to me. His name was Fontaine. We were close friends. He said to me, 'You want to know about our parchment and papyrus identification. Is the result of that?' He left with me after he had finished speaking. We were later at a party together. We saw the parchments of the French translation and important passages from James' Gospel. Of course, Mr. Randall, you should understand When I used all kinds of advanced equipment to identify the parchment and papyrus. And I never read the contents of it seriously, and I didn't even read it when I had the opportunity. Until 10 months ago, I read, for the first time, what these texts mean." He smiled, "Can you feel how much they shake me? Especially the Gospel of James." "I think I can imagine that," Randall replied. "No one could have imagined that as an objective scientist like me, what I had been looking for for many years was effortless. I was deeply moved. Before this, I always thought that I was a scientist first, and I should use science I admit that in my deserted laboratory I discovered this truth. Now, I no longer deny it, our Lord really exists in the world. My first reaction is ，我将如何改变自己？就好像自已被送到了另一个世界。对我来说，上帝之子是一个颠扑不破的真理，因此上帝的存在自然也是真的了。这是第一次，就像哈姆雷特，我发现这其中有我们在科学领域中永远无法寻觅到的真理，一种信仰。多少世纪以来，人们都是毫无根据地在信仰上帝，但那只是一种盲目的信仰，而现在，他们的信仰将被事实所证实，人们不再毫无根据地去信仰自己的宗教，去相信、去信仰一个真实存在的领袖。人的信仰中自然有许多是抽象的东西，有些不为人所知的动机，但我们现在为什么不信教呢？” 奥伯特用富有挑衅性的眼光看着兰德尔。而兰德尔只好意地耸了一下眉，说：“为什么不呢，真的？” “因此，亲爱的先生，第一次，完全是第一次，我明白了一个道理，那就是我们的先辈们和同事们为什么常常把宗教信仰和科学结合在一起。布雷塞?帕斯卡尔，17世纪一位伟大的科学家，当他皈依基督教时曾说：'心跳动也是有原因的，只是不知道是何原因。'” “我想帕斯卡尔是个心理学家。”兰德尔打断他的话。 “开始时他肯定是个科学家，”奥伯特教授说，“他绝对是一个科学家。在他16岁时曾写过一篇文章。他最早发现了模糊数学，而且第一个发明计算机，并把这台计算机送到瑞典王后克里斯蒂娜那里。他还阐明并制作了一个温度表。然而，他相信奇迹，因为他经历过一次。他相信自然界中存在超越于人类的一种冥冥之力。帕斯卡尔写道：'男人们鄙视宗教，因为他们害怕宗教是真实存在的。为了治愈这种心理，首先就要知道宗教并不是和推理相冲突！其实要知道宗教是令人崇敬的，是值得人崇拜的；最后再承认它是真实的。'帕斯卡尔认为——上帝要么存在，要么不存在。那么为什么不宁可信其有呢？'如果你赢得了一切；如果你输了，你什么都没有失去。那么，就毫不迟疑地把赌押在上帝存在上吧。'那就是帕斯卡尔。当然了，还有一些其他人。” “其他人？” “科学家们是可以生活在推理和超自然之间的。我们所敬爱的巴斯德，承认他对自然界的神秘观察思考得越多，就越像一个目不识丁的农人似的信仰上帝。还有爱因斯坦——他认为宗教和科学之间没有冲突。他说，科学致力于'是什么'，而宗教致力于'应该是什么'。爱因斯坦认为，'我们所能经历的最美丽的事情也是最神秘难解的。要知道我们所无法理解的东西确实存在，而我们这些愚钝的脑子无法理解最高智慧和最光辉灿烂的美丽——这种知识，这种感觉，是真正的宗教信仰的中心。从这种意义上讲，我属于对宗教虔诚的人'。” 奥伯特教授很想知道自己给兰德尔的印象是什么，他好像是害羞似的对兰德尔笑了一笑，“从这种意义上讲，我也成了一个虔诚的宗教信仰者。”他继续说道，“第一次我觉得佛洛德说的'用对科学的迷信来嘲笑宗教的迷信'很好笑。一夜之间，我好像是变了一个人，即使不是在实验室里，也是在家里。我对待我妻子和她的想法与要求的态度，我对家庭意义的态度都变了。甚至于生儿育女的观念——这是我至少应该考虑的。” 正在这个时候，一个女人的声音打断了他们。 奥伯特马上站了起来，高兴地微笑着，兰德尔也跟着站了起来。一个年轻女人大概35岁左右，发式精美，举止优雅，脸上精致地化了妆，戴着昂贵的首饰，一副大家闺秀的样子。奥伯特拥抱了她，并分别在两颊上给了她一个吻。 “加布里埃尔，我的宝贝，”奥伯特说道，“快来见见我的美国客人，史蒂夫?兰德尔先生。” “Enchantec”，加布里埃尔?奥伯特说道。 兰德尔和她握了手，当他的眼光往下移时，发现她已经很明显地怀孕了。