今週のHoffmanは先週のLake Marahの奇跡（苦い水が謎の植物を入れたら甘くなった）に関連して、著者たちが奇跡をどう考えているかの手がかりを探ってみましょう。
個人的には、超伝導や磁性は奇跡的な現象だと思います。また、しばらく前のsuper volunteer の話は一種の奇跡だと思います。
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%BE%E7%95%A0%E6%98%A5%E5%A4%AB
1.The authority convinced by the miracle that repeats itself so many times – the beautiful and unexpected but reproducible experiment.
「(科学における)miracleは美しく予想もつかないが再現できる実験である」
- Apropos miracles, I found an interesting comment from one of my countrymen, George Bernard Shaw: When we refuse to believe in the miracles of religion for no better reason fundamentally than that we are no longer in the humor for them we refill our minds with the miracles of science, most of which the authors of the Bible would have refused to believe.(..略..） Religion is the mother of skepticism. Science is the mother of credulity. There is nothing that people will not believe nowadays if only it be presented to them as science, and nothing that they will not disbelieve if it be presented to them as religion. I myself began like that; and I am ending by receiving every scientific statement with dour suspicion whilst giving very respectful consideration to the inspiration and revelations of the prophets and poets.
George Bernard Shaw: イギリスの劇作家(1856-1950)。気の利いた皮肉（毒舌 scathing criticism ともいう）で有名。scathing スケイじング 辛辣な
apropos アプロ「ポウ」 適切な時期の、折のよい
skepticism 懐疑主義
credulity クレ「デュ」リティ 馬鹿正直
dour suspicion 暗い疑い dour ドゥア むっつりと陰気な
a prophet 預言者
「最近の人は、科学というと信じ、宗教というと信じない。私も初めはそうだったが、年をとった今は逆だ」さすが皮肉屋です。
- I like what George Bernard Shaw said, and in his spirit, may I make a few comments irreverent of both science and religion?
I think religion and science are both attempts by human beings to come to terms with the beautiful but quirky universe. In any era, in any day of our lives, we are faced with much that is clear and a range of happenings that we do not understand the wisest and kindest of women is killed by a hit-and-run driver, a tumor that should kill recedes. If one understands (or desires) the event, one calls it explainable by science, or the answer to a prayer. Even a miracle. If one doesn’t understand, then the scientist renames it as a “spontaneous remission” of the tumor-the demon named is tamed. And if one is religious, and if the event is blatantly against all values
(as in the death of that woman, or so many of my people in World War II) then one falls back on the book of Job, and the unfathomable will of God. But if the event is desirable, it’s a miracle. How self-centered that last view is, how not of God, but of Man!
I say a pox on both your houses. No, I really don’t mean that, because I love you both, as much as I love the unfathomable path of the tornado. I will take the beauties that scientific understanding brings, its infinite intricacies and simple equations alike. And I will accept the sublime, and the ethical core of religion. Both of you are so deep. And you are so obvious when you try to stretch the wonderfully hazardous web of what is into the flimsy simple cloth of what humans want to be.
recede リ「シー」ド 退く
a hit-and-ran driver ひき逃げ犯
remission 刑期短縮, 病気の寛解 「腫瘍の自発的寛解」
blatantly ずうずうしくも
the book of Job 旧約聖書のヨブ記（読んだことがなければ、聖書文化圏の人とのコミュニケーションのため一読をおすすめします） https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A8%E3%83%96%E8%A8%98
日本に住む我々は地震の理不尽さに関する認識が心の底に入っていて、武士道にもその影があるというのが私の説です。
I say a pox …以下は解読が必要ですね。
“a pox on your houses” はシェークスピアのロミオとジュリエットのセリフ。「どっちもどっちだ」「両家ともいいかげんにしろ」（直訳：両方の家に天然痘）
you both はscience とreligionを指している？
unfathomable 計り知れない （fathomは測深の単位「尋（ひろ）」「ファ」ぞム）
tornado 竜巻 トル「ネイ」ド
flimsy 薄っぺらい、もろい
- I think our discussion has run its course. Marah, or any miracle, is guaranteed to elicit the immediate responses that I got to my query: “There must be a scientific explanation!” and “Who cares, it was a miracle!” As we saw, the ground in between filled in-we had ancient and modern Jewish religious thinkers very much concerned about the precise nature of the tree. And we have seen scientists confronting the everyday miracle of taste, sweet or bitter. Perhaps in the end the opponents in this debate have not been shaken from their initial convictions. But I think that they, and I know I, have learned a lot.
elicit 引き出す、誘い出す エ「り」シット
convictions 信念
- Whether Marah was a miracle or occurred through natural means (even if Moses were instructed in chemistry by G-d) makes an essential difference to an observant Jew, to me. For if it were a miracle, then those who experienced the miracle and their children would be obliged to (and very much want to) make a benediction when they revisited the site.
observant 観察力のある、注意深いという意味もありますが、ここでは 遵守する 「厳格なユダヤ教徒には」
be obliged to ～しなければならない
benediction 祝福
- But life goes on, never stopping long to savor celebration. As it is in the world, so it is in the Torah. The people have a long way to go to the Promised Land, it’s time to move on. Then comes Marah, the very first of a long sequence of tribulations. Each of these will lead to dissatisfaction if not rebellion, followed by a miracle, and conclude with an admonition to hearken to His ways.
savor セイバ 風味、味、趣（おもむき）、ここは動詞で、「ゆっくり味わう」
Torah ユダヤ教の経典（≒旧約聖書の一部と解説書）
tribulations 艱難辛苦（かんなんしんく）
rebellion 反乱
admonition 説諭、警告（知らない言葉でした。weblio レベル11、5000語レベルです）
hearken はーケン 耳を傾ける（レベル24）
（すみません、備忘のため全部書きだしたら長くなってしまいました）