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I notice little in the way of great joy at the death of friends and loved ones, little triumph in their having passed on to heavenly glory sooner than they might otherwise have done so. When an earthquake kills two thousand people at a blow, we do not rejoice that the innocent among them are now in heaven, but we raise powerful hosannas if even one child is rescued alive from the ruins and is condemned to wait another sixty years, perhaps, before experiencing bliss.
对于朋友和所爱的人的去世，我很少发现有人会感到任何喜悦，很少会因为他们本应多活几年却提前获取了天堂的荣耀而感到高兴。当一次地震一下子便夺去2,000人的生命时，我们不会为那些无辜的人们现在已身处天堂而感到高兴。但是如果一个孩子被从废墟中救起，因而或许被迫再等60年才能去极乐世界，那么我们会为此大声欢呼。
I notice that all the people who are absolutely convinced that the United States is under the special protection of a powerful deity ("In God We Trust," it says on all our coins) are not at all certain that the deity is capable of protecting us unaided and insist that we have armed forces that are second to none.
我发现那些坚信美国被强大的神灵（“我们信仰上帝”，这是我们所有的硬帀上所写的）所庇佑的人们根本不能确定那个神能保佑我们不受任何威胁，却坚持说我们拥有最好的武装力量。
And, as a matter of fact, average people living average lives, however much they may "believe" in God and in whatever religion they have been brought up to believe, act as though the world is in the grip of evil forces that must be held off in silly ways.
然而实际上，过着平凡的生活的普通人，无论他们多么“信仰”上帝，无论他们从小到大被告知要信仰什么宗教，他们的行为就好像这个世界受制于邪恶的力置，必须通过某些愚蠢的方式来战胜。
How many countless millions of people, even in "sophisticated" Western societies, place their faith not in God but in rabbits' feet, in horseshoes, in four-leaf clovers, or in lucky pieces of an infinite number of shapes and forms? How many are terrified of black cats crossing their path, of ladders being walked under, of mirrors being broken, of aces of spades being turned up.
有多少数不清的数以百万计的人们，甚至在“先进的”西方社会，并不信仰上帝，而是相信兔子的脚，相信马蹄，相信四叶草或者其他无数种可以带来幸运的形状或形式？有多少人害怕黑猫从自己的面前穿过，害怕走在梯子下面，害怕打碎镜子，害怕黑桃A的出现？
