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中国古代有一个故事，叫做井底之蛙。我这儿也有一个故事，讲的是井底一群青蛙的传奇。

相传很久以前，井里住着一群青蛙。青蛙们世代住在井里，白天捉虫，晚上睡觉，生活倒也和谐。青蛙的整个世界就是这个小小的井底。青蛙的科学家们进行了很多探索，做了很多试验。把整个“世界”探索得很清楚了。唯一没有经过反复验证的就是头顶那小小的亮圆孔了。科学家们把那小圆孔叫做“天”。在井底小小的空间捉虫的空余，青蛙们常常抬起头，看着头顶远远、亮亮一个洞，想像着天是什么。

青蛙们总是有探索精神的。要想知道天是什么，唯一的办法就是靠近天做试验。于是青蛙们组织了一个又一个科学探险队，顺着井壁向上爬。可是井壁又湿又滑，青蛙们最多只能爬到离井口二分之一的地方就掉了下来。青蛙们于是在离井口一半的地方做了一个又一个试验，没有发觉那个亮孔比在井底看到的亮孔有什么不同，只是大了一点。根据青蛙的Razor principle，青蛙的科学家们总结出“天”的特征：天是亮亮的，圆圆的，有时光线有些变化；天可能比能直接看见的范围要大，可其它部分对青蛙的世界没有影响，已经超出了“科学”的范畴。

终于，青蛙社会里出了一个异常强壮的青蛙，叫做耶苏。他的腿比其他青蛙们都粗一倍以上。有一天，耶苏奋勇的沿着井壁向上爬，想超过以前青蛙不可逾越的极限。他成功了，爬到了离井口三分之一的地方，那时他才精疲力竭，掉了下来。就在他掉下来的一瞬间，他看见“天”底下以前没有发现的东西，枝枝丫丫的。耶苏叫做“树”。不幸的是，耶苏爬得太高了，掉下来的时候摔断了一条腿，再也不能爬那么高了。更不幸的是，他爬的时候正好是青蛙午休时间，大多数青蛙都在打盹。只有几个落后青蛙，当时正在做一些偷偷摸摸的勾当，看见了耶苏的壮举。当耶苏告诉其他青蛙们他的发现时，众青蛙们都嘲笑他，根本不相信他爬了那么高，说理论上不可能，更不用说发现的“树”了。“树”的发现没有其他青蛙的证实，不具有重复性，更有可能是耶苏精疲力竭时眼中的幻觉。只有几个亲眼看见耶苏爬高的小混混相信他，奉他为神灵。耶苏也趁势成立了一个宗教，传于青蛙之中。耶苏最著名的预言就是他的末日预言：当世界末日到来的时候，青蛙们就能看到“树”了。

就在同一时期，有一位老青蛙就更玄了，他叫做佛柁。据佛柁说，他可以脱离青蛙的肉体，漂浮于空中。他可以很轻松的飞离井口。据他说，天底下又很多东西，除了耶苏说的“树”外，还有一些叫做“花花草草”的东西。他说的话其他人就更不信了。所有的科学都指出，世界只有井这么大，怎么会有其他的世界呢？不过佛柁也成立了他的宗教。在他的指导下，追随他的青蛙也号称可以脱离肉体，只是不能飞那么高。科学总是不能解释这些现象，只说那些青蛙“信”了，所看见的都是他们的心理暗示。

时间就这么飞快的过去了。耶苏和佛柁都成了传奇。他们关于“树”，和“花花草草”的故事却印在很多青蛙的心里。可科学一直不能证明它们的存在。

有一天，青蛙们突然发现世界不一样了。整个世界在颤抖（地震了），以前世世代代经试验论证的科学突然都不灵了。青蛙们惊慌失措，以为世界的末日到来了。而一些科学家们则赶紧做试验，想总结出新的理论来解释这些现象。众青蛙们抬头看着天，眼睁睁的看见井口裂开来了，大把大把的碎石从井口掉落下来。就在井口碎石掉下来的瞬间，井口扩大了，青蛙们突然大喊：“看，树！”青蛙们终于看见树了。可他们的世界也被大量的碎石掩埋了。

就在石头快砸下来的时候，有些青蛙们还在想：树是看见了，可是花花草草呢？

© Copyright 2008 by Fei Sun. This article may not be copied, printed, forwarded or modified by any means without author’s permission.

Haven’t updated it for a long time, here are the remaining two parts…

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好吧，看看佛教和基督教有什么类似和不同的地方吧。。。

其实我觉得佛教和基督教有很多相似的地方的。基督教的世界可以称为三界：地狱，人间，天堂。佛教的欲界有六道。我觉得基督教和佛教的说法可以对应得很好。基督教的地狱对应于佛教的地狱和恶鬼。人间对应于佛教的畜生和人。天堂对应于佛教的天。佛教的阿修罗有点特别，藏于其他五界中。

基督教的上帝对应于佛教的什么呢？我认为是天人。其中第四层天，兜率天的首领嫌疑最大（是我瞎猜的）。当时释迦牟尼成佛有八个步骤，其中一个步骤叫降魔，降的就是兜率天的头。（此为小乘佛教，大乘佛教认为魔由心生，不存在降魔。）呵呵，我把基督教的上帝看成佛教的魔，希望基督徒们不要见怪。其实魔和神没有本质的不同。

圣经里上帝是有无边的法力，贯穿过去现在未来。其实我不这么认为。再说了，所有的神都想让人觉得他是法力无边的。记得我有一次问一位基督教长老，也是Princeton物理教授一个问题。用的是三段论。大前提：上帝法力无边，通晓未来。小前提：上帝有时（或无时无刻）对人间施加影响。结论：上帝知道自己什么时候对世界施加什么影响。给我的感觉是上帝是机械的，或者说上帝给人的自由是假的，一切都在上帝的掌控之中。当时长老的解释是，上帝的完美的，完美的事物不需要改变。这我很能理解。我举了一个类比，有一张无限大的纸，上面有个坐标系，X轴是时间，Y轴是空间。人们只知道纸上光锥里的事情，并且光锥是从左往右移动的。而上帝可以在这之上标出他对世界施加影响的坐标。所以上帝知道我们未来会做什么（未来已经在纸上画好了），他会施加什么影响。这里有一个因果关系在里面。当我们从左往右走一遍的过程中，上帝会做些选择，我们会有一种未来。可当我们从左往右再走一遍的时候，上帝会做相同的选择（因为上帝是完美的），我们会有相同的未来。给我的感觉就是，上帝就是那张纸，是机械的。而我们的自由是假的，未来是确定的。当时那位长老承认他也没有想好。但他不讨论再走一次的过程。现在想来，我用了个佛教的观点，就是世界是有轮回的，所以能再走一次。而基督教是不承认轮回的。所以这个假设不成立。

说到轮回，这可是佛教的核心思想之一。世间万物，不管是在地狱界、饿鬼界、畜生界、阿修罗界、人界、 天界，都已经活了亿万年了。万物们从生到死，投胎再生再死，循环反复，无止无息，永远在苦海里轮回。那究竟是什么决定下一世成为什么，出生在何方呢？那就 是“业”(Karma)。佛教认为，万事万物由因生果，因果即是业。人死后（这里以人指代万物，因为我们最熟悉人，也最在乎人），人的地水火风都散去了， 但人在今生的所作所为都记录在“业”里，人前面千百万世的所作所为都记录在业里。而正是这个业决定人下一世出生在六界的哪一界，命运如何。打个比方，业就 像水，盛于一容器中（这容器是什么，到现在也没有定论，一说是人的第九感）。当人造善业，就相当于往容器里加水；当人造恶业，就相当于放容器的水。人死后 容器里水的多少就决定人下一世的命运。

这里千万不能用静止的观点看业，业不是一个恒定的状态，业是因缘，是过程。比方说，现在的我和五年后的我是同一个我吗？五年后，我身上绝大多数细胞都是新 的。五年后，我的思想和现在的思想也可能很不一样。五年后，不管是物质上还是精神上的我都和现在很不一样，我还是我吗？这里牵涉到一个什么是自我的问 题。。。很复杂，很复杂。。。我简单的认为，还是可以说是同一个我的，因为在这五年间的每一个瞬间，我的物质上或精神上的变化都是很小的。业也是一样的。 虽然今生的业和来生的业可能很不一样（业不是静态的），那都是我的所作所为点点滴滴积累的结果。

佛教认为，人是有轮回的，世界也是有轮回的。世界也从产生到毁灭，再产生，再毁灭。。。我们的世界和天人的世界产生毁灭的步调不尽相同。有可能我们的世界 毁灭了，我们就跑到其他法界里了。有可能天人的世界毁灭了，天人们也跑到其他法界去了。这里要说明的是天人界有很多层（就和地狱界有很多层一样），有可能 只有一层的天人界被毁灭掉。

那佛又是什么呢？佛是觉悟的人。佛洞察了世界的奥秘，摆脱了苦海。佛的最终境界是无善无恶：善念不起，恶念不生。成佛要经历很多步骤。我暂分为两大方面： 一是修业力，二是洞察世界。要成佛首先要悟到四圣谛，修八正道，这样就可以成为罗汉了。然后要悟到十二因缘，成为辟支佛（此为一种解释，有说辟支佛是自我修行脱离苦海的，但并不是通过学佛的）。 再后要发菩萨愿，悟到六波罗蜜，成为菩萨。要成为无善无恶的佛，就要把自己的善恶都除去。而对人来讲，恶总是很难除去的，所以成佛的途径是修善，要修菩萨 道，以自己的极善把恶念除去，最后再将自己的善念除去，才能成佛。如果你在一世之内悟到所有方面，就可成佛了（释迦摩尼是一晚上悟到的）。如果你只悟到四圣谛，不好意思，你成为罗汉了，你的“我执”还没有灭掉，又不会死，成佛更难了（佛教一支这么认为）。成佛是极难极难的。我们的世界到现在只出了个释迦牟尼佛。下一个佛是弥勒佛，那要等到佛教消亡了以后才会产生。。。大家可以做做成佛的梦吧。。。

说个好玩的，佛教的佛有很多个，相同名字的佛爷有很多很多个。很多佛是其他世界产生的，我们世界只出了一个。佛的名字就好像军队里的军衔一样，而不是单指一个特定的佛。就像释迦牟尼佛是中将，弥勒佛是少将，观音菩萨是上校，等等等等。。。

从哲学上来讲，佛教属于week atheism。不承认世上有神的存在（即便是佛，也是由人产生的）。佛教并没有说明世界为什么是这样，只说这是“天道如是”。看来佛教也有一些没有说清楚的地方。。。

Because I learned Buddhism in Chinese, this article is written in Chinese.

佛教对很多中国人来说并不陌生。这从大大小小的寺院里拜佛拜观音的人们就可以看出来了。可拜佛不意味着懂佛。很多人口口声声念着佛却不知道佛是什么，怎样可以成佛。那些信奉基督的中国人对佛教更有一种神秘感。基督毕竟是洋物，佛教才更有中国渊源。我认识的很多基督徒对佛教都知之甚少。一些基督教会的牧师和长老们都认为佛教只是一种自我修身养性的方法，本身没有什么世界观，无法和基督教相比。

我以前对佛教也一无所知，直到后来因一些因缘，参加了一个佛教学习班，才了解一二（惭愧的是，由于毅力不够，也没有上完）。佛教是有自己的世界观的。这里我就先简单介绍一下佛教的世界观，再和基督教的世界观比较一下。

我们所在的世界在佛教里叫作一个小世界。小世界以须弥山为中心，分四大洲。而地球是在这个小世界的南瞻部洲的一个小岛（此为一种解释）。我认为这小世界就是我们所说的宇宙。佛教里有很多很多的小世界。一千个小世界组成一个小千世界，一千个小千世界组成一个中千世界，而一千个中千世界组成一个大千世界，叫作三千大千世界。这里的一千是明显的虚指。小世界是一个完整的体系，只有佛（或四圣）可以穿行于不同的世界，而六凡则不行（只有通过轮回）。可见佛教世界观的广阔，远远超出了人类的范畴。

一个小世界又分为十法界：地狱，饿鬼，畜生，阿修罗，人，天，声闻，缘觉，菩萨，佛。其中前六界称为六凡，后四界称为四圣。六凡要经历轮回之苦，又分为三界：欲界，色界，无色界。只有天人才能去色界或无色界。而四圣则脱离苦海，无生无灭了，从而穿行于不同的世界中。。。。

In Christianity, human is special. Human is the ruler of the world. Bible is solely written for human. If we find some aliens in the future, we may not teach them Christianity (but they may have some Bible of their own). Christianity is for human, and human alone. Human only lives once. After people die, their bodies and souls disappear, but their spirits choose to go to two places, Heaven, or Hell. Since human is so important, God send the savior, Jesus, to earth, and showed people the road to salvation. The road is simple: follow Jesus, do good deeds. 

To me, Christianity is like a piece of bread, with a nut residing inside, which is the same nut in the previous chapter. We can verify everything inside the nut using scientific methods. But as for the rest of the bread, only people accepting Christian assumptions can see it. Other people can only see void… The piece of bread, however, has a boundary. The boundary is the assumption Christians make: There exists an almighty benevolent God. What’s outside the boundary? It is the realm of God. Human cannot perceive in his limited mind. Is there a bread or not? Is there a boundary or not? Nobody knows. 

It goes back to belief. After all, Christianity is a religion, a religion of human.

First, I’d say God want to create an intricate, self-sustained world. God will not create a broken world that require His every attention. This, is the assumption I make. (If you think the world is broken, you don’t need to read any further.) In a self-sustained world, the method to “evolve” from the most primitive living cell to the most complex human exists. However, the method exists does not mean God did not create all the living beings. The key is time. 

We say the existence of high intelligent beings on earth is a low probability event. We don’t know how low the probability is because we don’t know how large the whole set is. However, by searching neighboring planets and stars, it seems the probability is low. The evolution from one family to another family who fits the environment better is also a small probability event. The probability may be so small that each step in the evolution takes millions or billions of years following the conventional evolution mechanism. God, on the other hand, may have His own schedule. He may not be willing to wait for billions of years to see the evolution outcome. Thus, God periodically injects some minute perturbation to the world, which make small probability events become large probability events, following His discretion. If you believe the evolution process takes too long (some consider several evolution steps take too long), you can use the same argument to explain the long evolution process. 

Thus, the evolution theory and creation theory can be united. From science side, different families of animals are indeed evolved because each family of animals is only slightly different from the family it is evolved from. On the other hand, without God’s injection, we may not see such a fast (or slow) evolution, or we may not see an evolution following the current direction. In this sense, species are “created”.

Now the question becomes: how does God inject the perturbation. If the injection is too abrupt and at a large scale, it may undermine the intricacy of the world. I think the injection is in a very small scale, so small that the modern physics cannot detect the turbulence of the injection. And the nature provide a perfect means for such injections. It is at the atomic level. Remember in the previous chapter I mentioned that quantum mechanics, which is the theory to describe subatomic particle behaviors, only provide data of statistical importance? God may well change the probability of a sequence of events at subatomic level, making possible an evolution with extreme low probability (or reverse). 

Now, the controversy between creation and evolution are mitigated.

At first sight, Christians have a hard time, because science is widely accepted in the world today, as scientific experiments have been tested. However, whatever God says are not tested as often.

We need to go back to the scientific method of “repetition”. This method applies better in natural sciences, and is less successful in social sciences. When we take a second look at the Bible, it is not obvious to me that God said much about natural sciences. It is understandable because the Bible was written thousands of years ago. The Bible is like a history book describing the stories or legends at that time. As we discussed before, we cannot “repeat” history. We never know what exactly happened at that time. Each party can find supporting evidence and hard-to-explain phenomena. 

Here I give you an example. On September 11, 2001, four commercial planes were hijacked and flown into landmarks, causing severe damages. It was well recorded in American history. After the attack, FBI, CIA, and homeland security operated full time to look for the terrorists. They found Bin Laden. However, mysteries of the attack were never resolved. Some people suspected that the twin towers collapsed not because of the two hijacked planes but because they were secretly demolished after the attack, perhaps for the benefit of insurance. The wreckage of UA-93, which hit west Pennsylvania, was never found. Only a big hole was found in that area. People could not find a lot of plane wreckage from the plane that hit Pentagon, and some people questioned the official announcement of the Pentagon attack. Thus, some conspiracy theories were spread among people, claiming the attacks were plotted by the US government. Which one do you believe? Each side has its own evidence. As an observer, you may believe in the US government, or the conspiracy theories. No matter what you believe, you may be biased by your own preference. You tend to choose to believe the facts that support your assumptions, and ignore the counter evidence. The 9.11 event happened less than ten years ago. If we still cannot tell exactly what happened with all the advanced recording devices we use in the 21st century, how can we be certain what happened thousands of years ago, which were only based on incomplete documents? 

You choose what you believe based on your basic assumptions. Christians would believe everything in the Bible. Atheists would only believe some history stories in the Bible, if they are supported by documents and can be reasonably explained in science. Other stories are treated as exaggerations, or imaginations.

Here I use the word “Christianity”, but it has a broader meaning than what we usually talk about in life. I will mostly focus on the existence of God (Theism) and the Old Testament. Only in the end will I mention a bit of the New Testament and Jesus. In this sense, the major part of this article can also be applied to other religions, such as Judaism[1]  and Islam, which believe in the Old Testament as well. 

I have encountered many Christians in my life. They consider the Bible as the uttermost truth in life. They place their life in the hands of God and let God make decisions for them. Whenever they encounter an obstacle, they wonder why God has chosen this way for them. Whenever they receive unexpected luck/fortune, they give credit to God. They try to find a way out between science and the Bible. If there is a potential conflict, they would doubtlessly choose the Bible and question science. 

Many atheists don’t like the life Christians have chosen. In part, Christians seem to give up part of their lives to the God. Their reasoning seems unscientific. More importantly, some Christians would argue on issues that science has already drawn reasonable conclusions. 

Christians, on the other hand, are worried for the atheists because atheists have cut their connections from God. Christians often argue that a true atheist should analyze all religions in the world and conclude that all Gods are fake and thus God does not exist (here they actually mean nontheism). However, most atheists do not even make an attempt to understand different religions and draw their conclusions based on ignorance.

I totally understand the opinions of the two parties. They make different assumptions on the world. Of course their conclusions are different. Atheists believe in science. Christians believe in God. Their conflict intensifies when science draws one conclusion and God says otherwise. But can we find a middle way that science and God can be together peacefully?

[1] At the time of writing, I didn’t know much about Judaism. Now (07/08/2011) I realize that some of my assumptions were not correct. For example, Judaism doesn’t have the notion of Heaven or Hell. It only advocates that when the Savior come, all dead will come back to life. However, it doesn’t mention what happened to those people after they die and before the Savior come. It also does not mention what happened after those people come back to life (live happily ever after?). This, in some sense confirmed my belief. See “Where are we” for details.