保护上帝的创造_丁光训

2004年第6期58 保护上帝的创造 一九九○年一月在莫斯科环境与发展 全球论坛的讲话 我是宗教信徒，来自中国。在中国十一亿人口中， 有佛教徒、伊斯兰教徒、道教徒和基督教徒。在基督教 徒中，既有天主教信徒，又有新教信徒。我们的宗教信 仰各各相异，但是，谈到环境和发展的问题，我们都认 为，那是一个同人类在地球上继续生存密切相关的重 要问题。 我们基督徒肯定，宇宙和其中一切都是上帝的创 造。这一肯定意味着受造的世界是好的，是神圣的，世 界不是任何恶者的占领区。创造的工作还在继续进行， 它将最后克服原始的混乱和人们对创造的罪恶破坏， 把自然历史和人类历史带到这样一个境地，在那里爱 心、正义、理智的统治将得到普及。基督教讲道成肉身， 讲救赎，也足以反映人的可贵。我们可否这样来看宗教 的任务：把人们从创造的破坏者转化而为上帝创造的 协同者?中国古代传说，有个叫女娲的英雄，据说是一 位女性，当她发现天的一角要塌落下来的时候，她搬来 五彩的石头，把天撑住。 可是我们今天所看到的不是那样，人们正在做那 么多事情去糟蹋、破坏自然。据统计，每一年，我们的 地球上有两千七百多万英亩的树林被毁掉。要是继续 三十年，这面积将有整个印度那么大。每年还有一千四 百多万英亩的良田沦为沙漠。由于人类燃烧大量的煤 炭、柴油、汽油，大气中二氧化碳日益增加，全球气温 升高；如果这一“温室效应”听其继续，到二十一世纪 中，适合于生长农作物的地面将发生大的转移，南北两 极的冰块的融化将提高海洋的水位，造成一些城市淹 水。工业气体将进一步损害保护着地球的臭氧层，太阳 红外线辐射的增强将导致人类和动物更多的癌变。 凡此种种，都不是地球不治之症。现代科学可以处 理这些问题。当代人类所需要的，是一种看到整个地球 环境的眼光。 我们各宗教信徒要呼吁：救救自然，救救地球，救 救我们的空气和我们的流水。上帝的创造只许美化，不 准糟蹋。 为了保卫我们的环境，我们要同目标一致的团结 I am a religious believer from China. Among China's one billion people, there are Buddhists, Muslims, Taoists and Christians, both Catholic and Protestant. Our religious beliefs are all different, but when it comes to the environment, we all feel this is an important question tied to the contin- ued existence on this planet of our common humanity. We Christians affirm the universe and all it contains as God's creation. This affirmation means that the created world is good and holy. The world is not under the occu- pation of any evildoer. The work of creation is ongoing; in the end it will overcome primitive chaos and the sinful harm humankind has done to the creation and brings both natural and human history to a condition where love, justice and reason are universal. The Christian concepts of the Incar- nation and of redemption are sufficient to reflect the value of humanity. Perhaps we can look at the duty of religion in this way: to transform humanity from despoilers of creation into co-creators with God. The heroine of an ancient Chi- nese legend is called Nü Wo. When she discovered that a corner of the sky was about to fall, she repaired it with multi-colored stones. But this is not the world we see today. People are doing so many things that lay waste to and despoil nature. Statistics show that every year over two million seven hun- dred thousand acres of forest are destroyed; if this continues for thirty years, the total area destroyed would be the size of India. Every year one million four hundred thousand acres of good cropland have been turned into the desert. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing because of human burning of charcoal, diesel oil and gasoline. The temperature of the earth is rising and if this "greenhouse effect" continues unchecked, in the 21st century there will be a great displacement of land suitable for cultivation. The melting of the northern and southern polar ice caps will raise the water level of the oceans and inundate certain cities. The damage done by industrial gases to the protective ozone layer around the earth will increase and the resultant strengthening of the sun's infrared rays will lead to a greater incidence of cancer in humans and animals. None of this is incurable. Modern science can deal with these problems. What humanity needs today is the vision to see the earth's environment whole. All of us religious believers should make an appeal for saving nature and saving the planet, for saving our air and Caring for God's Creation Speech at the Global Consultation on Develop- ment and the Environment,Moscow, 1990 K.H.Ting 丁光训 English corner 论 坛英 语 角 2004年第6期 2004年第6期59 起来。在任何地方，有信宗教的，也有不信宗教的，有 信这个宗教的，有信那个宗教的，我们在信仰上大可各 信各的，彼此尊重。而对一切从事改善环境和发展经济 的，我们只有欢迎、感谢、支持、合作，决不应当疏远、 排斥。这种精神我们在中国只用四个字就可以表达，就 是“求同存异”。四十年来的经验告诉我们，任何时候 按这原则去办，人们就团结，事情就成功。 我特别要对发达国家发出呼吁：二十世纪中叶，人 类第一次能从宇宙空间遥望地球，所看到的是整个地 球。治理地球的工程早已超越一个工厂、一个地区、一 个国家，只能凭全球的观点去进行。今天世界上存在着 一个很不公道的事实：大量的污染来自工业化的发达 国家，而许多发展中国家却承受着大量祸害。就以中国 来说，她不过在最近几十年才获得条件，谋求在农业、 工业、文化方面有所发展，好满足人民的基本需要。可 是，中国得为保护环境和净化环境转移她相当大的一 部分有限的资源。其他第三世界国家一定也面临着相 同的环境和发展的矛盾。据知，拉丁美洲有些国家，被 西方国家的债务所迫，本来可以用在开发上的许多自 然资源不得不用以还债。好些发展中国家人民的年平 均收入同十年前相比不是增加而是降低了。我希望，发 达国家在面临这全球性危机的时候，从道义责任也从 自身利益出发，考虑如何负起它们应负的责任。 据我所知，各教都有一些这样的信徒，他们认为只 应关心天上的事，他们认为，关心地球上人们的祸福， 就是喜爱不甚高超或不甚属灵的事，是不好的。宗教关 心人们死亡之后的事是正当的，但是，我多么愿意他们 理解，宗教关心人们出生之后的事也是正当的。用枪炮 杀人是明显的，但是乱砍树木污染空气，造成地球升温 等等，也都是杀人，不过不那么显然而已。忽视生态平 衡实在就是毁坏上帝的创造，无形之中让无数无辜的 人们遭到杀害。自然界正在受苦叹息。我想，今天人们 对环境问题的重视正是上帝对这一哀痛的顾惜和回音。 让我们共同希望和祈求一个爱的、和谐的、美好的世界 的来临。 责任编辑 余 葶 our water. God's creation must be beautified, not despoiled. To safeguard our earth, we need to unite with others who have the same goal. Anywhere you look; there are religious believers and non-believers, or those who believe differently from us. But in matters of faith we can have mutual respect. Toward all those who are involved in im- proving the environment and developing the economy, we should be welcoming, grateful, supportive and cooperative. We express this idea in one short phrase in Chinese: "Seek the common ground while reserving differences." Forty years of experience have taught us that whenever we do things in this way, our efforts are crowned with success. I want to make a special appeal to developing nations: In the mid 20th century, humankind can for the first time gaze upon the earth from space. What we see from this vantage point is the whole earth. The work of healing the planet has grown beyond the work of a single factory, region or nation. We can only approach it from a global standpoint. There is a very unjust state of affairs in the world today——the majority of pollution comes from the industrialized developed countries and many developing coun- tries reap a great deal of harm from this. Take China for example. Only in recent decades have conditions been suit- able for us to develop in agriculture, industry and culture; only recently have we been able to satisfy our people's needs. However, China has diverted a large amount of its limited resources to protecting and cleaning up the environment. No doubt many other Third World countries face the same dilemma in choosing between development and the economy. I have heard that some Latin American countries, oppressed by their debts to Western countries, have had to use natural resources which might have con- tributed to their development to pay off their debts. The annual per capital income of many developing countries has not increased, but decreased over the past decade. It is my hope that as developing countries faces this global crisis, they proceed from both a sense of moral responsibility and self-interest in considering how to fulfill their responsibility. As far as I know, all religions have those adherents who feel they only need to be concerned about the things of heaven. For them, concern for the sufferings of people on earth means lack of love for the transcendent or the spiritual. This is a bad thing. How I wish they could understand that it is equally correct for religion to be concerned about life after birth as it is for it to be concerned about life after death. Cutting down the forests, polluting the air, contrib- uting to the rise in the earth's temperature are also forms of murder, though not as obvious as shooting someone. Ig- noring the ecological balance is destruction of God's creation; it leads imperceptibly to the deaths of countless innocent people. The natural world is suffering and cries out to us. I believe that people's concern with the ecology today is God's way of showing his care for and response to this concern. Let us join together in hoping and praying for the coming of a world of love, harmony and beauty. English corner 英 语 角 2004年第6期