A COLLECTION OF GOOD WORDS
进化
Evolution
It is essential for genetic material to be able to make exact copies of itself; otherwise growth would produce disorder, life could not originate, and favourable forms would not be perpetuated by natural selection.
遗传物质能够精确地复制自己是至关重要的;否则，生长就会产生混乱，生命就不能起源，有利的形式就不会通过自然选择得以延续。
Since natural selection requires a function to select, an irreducibly complex biological system, if there is such a thing, would have to arise as an integrated unit for natural selection to have anything to act on.
既然自然选择需要一个功能来选择，一个不可还原的复杂的生物系统，如果有这样一个东西，将不得不作为一个整体出现，自然选择有任何行动。
In short, it is not that evolutionary naturalists have been less brazen than the scientific creationists in holding science hostage, but rather that they have been infinitely more effective in getting away with it.
简而言之，这并不是说进化自然主义者比科学神创论者更厚颜无耻地把科学当作人质，而是说他们在逃脱惩罚方面比科学神创论者有效得多。
Why has not anyone seen that fossils alone gave birth to a theory about the formation of the earth, that without them, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the globe.
为什么没有人看到化石本身就产生了一种关于地球形成的理论呢?如果没有化石，没有人会想到地球的形成会有连续的时代。
Science cannot tell theology how to construct a doctrine of creation, but you can't construct a doctrine of creation without taking account of the age of the universe and the evolutionary character of cosmic history.
科学无法告诉神学如何构建一个创世论，但如果不考虑宇宙的年龄和宇宙历史的演化特征，你就无法构建一个创世论。
Why do people believe that there are dangerous implications of the idea that the mind is a product of the brain, that the brain is organized in part by the genome, and that the genome was shaped by natural selection?
为什么人们认为思维是大脑的产物，大脑部分由基因组组成，基因组是由自然选择形成的这种观点有危险的含义?
I am decidedly of the opinion that in very many instances we can trace such a necessary connexion, especially among birds, and often with more complete success than in the case which I have here attempted to explain.
我坚决认为，在许多情况下，我们可以找到这种必要的联系，特别是在鸟类之间，而且往往比我在这里试图解释的情况更完全地成功。
It was a shock to people of the nineteenth century when they discovered, from observations science had made, that many features of the biological world could be ascribed to the elegant principle of natural selection.
当十九世纪的人们从科学的观察中发现生物世界的许多特征可以归因于自然选择的优雅原则时，他们感到震惊。
In any case, in so far as our knowledge of the universe carries us, the advent of civilization for the first time on our globe represents the highest ascent of the life processes to which evolution had anywhere attained.
无论如何，就我们对宇宙的知识所承载的意义而言，文明的出现首次代表着进化所达到的生命进程的最高提升。
It cannot but happen...that those will survive whose functions happen to be most nearly in equilibrium with the modified aggregate of external forces... This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.
它不得不发生……那些在外力的修正作用下，其功能几乎达到平衡的行星将会幸存下来。适者生存意味着适者生存的乘法。
For the first time in human evolution, the individual life is long enough, and the cultural transformation swift enough, that the individual mind is now a constituent player in the global transformation of human culture.
在人类进化中，个体生命第一次足够长，文化转型也足够快，以至于个体意识现在成为了全球人类文化转型的一个组成部分。
According to the standard model billions of years ago some little quantum fluctuation, perhaps a slightly lower density of matter, maybe right where we're sitting right now, caused our galaxy to start collapsing around here.
根据几十亿年前的标准模型一些量子涨落，也许是物质密度稍微低一点，也许就在我们现在所在的位置，导致我们的星系开始在这里坍塌。
KEEP EXPLORING
沿着这个主题，再读几句。
Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution.
爱是一种神圣的能量储备;它就像精神进化的血液。
The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human race has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced.
进步的残酷被称为革命。当它们结束时，我们意识到:人类受到了粗暴的对待，但它已经进步了。
The most telling and profound way of describing the evolution of the universe would undoubtedly be to trace the evolution of love.
描述宇宙进化最生动、最深刻的方式无疑是追溯爱的进化。
At a minimum, in explaining evolutionary pathways through time, the constraints imposed by history rise to equal prominence with the immediate advantages of adaptation.
至少，在解释贯穿时间的进化路径时，历史施加的约束与适应的直接优势同等重要。
We regard it as a certainty that the earth, enclosed between poles, is bounded by a spherical surface.
我们认为地球在两极之间是由一个球面所包围的，这是毫无疑问的。
Darwin's idea of natural selection makes people uncomfortable because it reverses the direction of tradition.
达尔文的自然选择思想让人们感到不舒服，因为它颠覆了传统的方向。