Sophie’s World
Sophie Amonson was on her way home from school.
It was early May. In some of the gardens the fruit trees were encircled with dense clusters of daffodils.
The birches were already in pale green leaf. It was extraordinary how everything burst forth at this time of year.
What made this great mass of green vegetation come welling up from the dead earth as soon as it got warm and the last traces of snow disappeared?
As Sophie opened her garden gate, she looked into the mailbox.
There was only one letter in the mailbox and it was for Sophie.
It contained only a slip of paper no bigger than the envelope.
It read, "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" She had no idea. She was Sophie Amonson of course,
but who was that? She had not really figured that out, yet.
What if she had been given a different name? Would she then have been someone else?
Wasn’t it odd that she didn’t know who she was? And wasn’t it unreasonable that she hadn’t been allowed to have any say in what she would look like?
Her looks had just been dumped on her.
She could choose her own friends, but she certainly hadn’t chosen herself.
She had not even chosen to be a human being.
What was a human being?
"I think I’ll go upstairs and do my biology homework," she said, almost apologetically.
Once she was out in the hall she thought, "No. I’d rather go out in the garden."
Sophie chased the cat out onto the doorstep and closed the front door behind her.
As she stood outside on the gravel path, the mysterious letter in her hand, the strangest feeling came over her. She felt like a doll that had suddenly been brought to life by the wave of a magic wand. Perhaps she should go and see if any more letters had arrived. Sophie hurried to the gate and looked inside the green mailbox. She was startled to find that it contained another white envelope exactly like the first. But the mailbox had definitely been empty when she took the first envelope.
This envelope had her name on it as well.
She tore it open and fished out a note the same size as the first one.
"Where does the world come from?" it said. It was a fair question.
For the first time in her life she felt it wasn’t right to live in the world without at least inquiring where it came from. The mysterious letters had made Sophie’s head spin. Sophie knew that the world was only a small planet in space. But where did space come from? It was possible that space had always existed. In which case she would not need to figure out where it came from. But could anything have always existed? Something deep down inside her protested at the idea.
Surely everything that exists must have had a beginning. So space must have been created out of something else. But if space had come from something else, then that something else must also have come from something. Sophie felt she was only deferring the problem. But some point, something must have come from nothing. She could accept that God had created space. But what about God himself? Had He created Himself out of nothing? Again there was something deep down inside her that protested. Even though God could create all kinds of things, He could hardly create himself before He had a Self to create with. So there was only one possibility left. God had always existed. But she had already rejected that possibility. Everything that existed had to have a beginning. Oh drat! She opened the two envelopes again.
"Who are you?" "Where does the world come from?"
蘇菲的世界
現(xiàn)在正是五月初,一些果園里,果樹(shù)被密密叢生的黃水仙層層圍住,
白樺樹(shù)已長(zhǎng)出了淡綠色的葉子。真令人不可思議。萬(wàn)物怎會(huì)在這個(gè)季節(jié)里突然間醒來(lái)?
是什么使這大片蔥綠的草木在最后一絲雪痕消失時(shí),從漸漸變暖的原告沉寂的土地上爭(zhēng)先恐后地冒出芽來(lái)?
蘇菲一打開(kāi)花園的門,第一件事便是去查看信箱,
信箱里面只有一封信,是寫(xiě)給她的。
里面只有一張不比信封大的紙條。
上面寫(xiě)著:“你是誰(shuí)?”
“你是誰(shuí)?”她弄不明白。當(dāng)然了,她是蘇菲•愛(ài)默生,
但是蘇菲•愛(ài)默生是誰(shuí)呢?她還沒(méi)有真正弄清楚。
要是她取了另一個(gè)名字又會(huì)怎樣呢?那她會(huì)成為另一個(gè)人嗎?
她不知自己是誰(shuí)是否很古怪?她無(wú)權(quán)決定自己的長(zhǎng)相這是否不公道?
她只是被別人擲給一副面孔。
她可以選擇自己的朋友,但卻當(dāng)然沒(méi)有選擇過(guò)自己,
她甚至對(duì)自己做人,也無(wú)法選擇。
人是什么?
“我想我該上樓做生物作業(yè)了,”她幾乎有些歉意地說(shuō)。
當(dāng)她走到外面的門廳里,她又想:“不,我寧愿到花園里去。”
蘇菲把貓趕到門外的石階上,順手關(guān)上了前門。
當(dāng)她手里拿著那封神秘的信站在屋外的碎石小道上時(shí),
一種奇特異常的感覺(jué)攫住了她,她感覺(jué)自己就像是一個(gè)突然魔杖點(diǎn)醒了的洋娃娃。
也許她該去看看還有沒(méi)有其它的信寄來(lái)。
蘇菲急忙跑到門口去看那綠色信箱里面。
她大吃了一驚——里面又有一封信,和第一封一樣也是白色信箱。
但她剛才取第一封信時(shí),信封里明明是空的!
信封上也寫(xiě)著她的名字。
她拆開(kāi)信,里面的紙條同第一封一樣大小。
“世界的本源在哪里?”上面寫(xiě)著。問(wèn)得好。
蘇菲生平第一次感到自己生活在這個(gè)世界,而不至少問(wèn)問(wèn)它的起源是不應(yīng)該的。
這兩封神秘的信把蘇菲攪得頭暈?zāi)X脹。
蘇菲知道這個(gè)世界只是宇宙中的一顆小行星。
但宇宙又從何而來(lái)?也有可能宇宙從來(lái)就有,
這樣的話她就不用費(fèi)盡心機(jī)推敲它的起源問(wèn)題了。
但有什么事物能亙古永存嗎?
她內(nèi)心深處的某種東西在反對(duì)這一點(diǎn)。
現(xiàn)存的每種事物諒必都有個(gè)起源。
而宇宙也該由另一種東西產(chǎn)生。
但假如宇宙起源于另一種東西,那這種東西也應(yīng)源自某種事物。
蘇菲覺(jué)得她只是在將問(wèn)題越攪越復(fù)雜。
但也許,有些東西是橫空出世的。
她可以接受上帝創(chuàng)世紀(jì)的觀點(diǎn),但上帝自己又是誰(shuí)造的呢?
難道他是憑空產(chǎn)生?她內(nèi)心深處的直覺(jué)又一次否定了這個(gè)觀點(diǎn)。
盡管上帝能創(chuàng)造世上萬(wàn)物,但他在有一個(gè)自己來(lái)創(chuàng)造之前簡(jiǎn)直不能創(chuàng)造自己。
那么就只有一個(gè)可能性了:上帝是從來(lái)就有的。
但她已早駁倒了這個(gè)可能性了。
存在的任何事物都應(yīng)有一個(gè)根源呀。噢,真麻煩!蘇菲又展開(kāi)了那兩封信。
“你是誰(shuí)?”
“世界從哪里來(lái)?”