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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.
對于朋友和所愛的人的去世，我很少發現有人會感到任何喜悅，很少會因為他們本應多活幾年卻提前獲取了天堂的榮耀而感到高興。當一次地震一下子便奪去2,000人的生命時，我們不會為那些無辜的人們現在已身處天堂而感到高興。但是如果一個孩子被從廢墟中救起，因而或許被迫再等60年才能去極樂世界，那么我們會為此大聲歡呼。
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.
我發現那些堅信美國被強大的神靈（“我們信仰上帝”，這是我們所有的硬帀上所寫的）所庇佑的人們根本不能確定那個神能保佑我們不受任何威脅，卻堅持說我們擁有最好的武裝力量。
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.
然而實際上，過著平凡的生活的普通人，無論他們多么“信仰”上帝，無論他們從小到大被告知要信仰什么宗教，他們的行為就好像這個世界受制于邪惡的力置，必須通過某些愚蠢的方式來戰勝。
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.
有多少數不清的數以百萬計的人們，甚至在“先進的”西方社會，并不信仰上帝，而是相信兔子的腳，相信馬蹄，相信四葉草或者其他無數種可以帶來幸運的形狀或形式？有多少人害怕黑貓從自己的面前穿過，害怕走在梯子下面，害怕打碎鏡子，害怕黑桃A的出現？
