We have minds that are programmed by culture that can be completely at odds with our genomes.

我们被文化程序化的大脑可能与基因完全不一样

And it leads to misunderstandings of evolution, like the idea that religious belief is a mind virus,

这就会让人们对进化产生误解 比如宗教信仰是一种思想病毒的想法

that effectively these beliefs structures are parasitizing human beings and they are wasting the time and effort that those human beings are spending on that endeavor

其实这些信仰结构寄生在人类身上 它们在浪费人类为此付出的时间和努力

rather than the more reasonable interpretation, which is that these belief systems have flourished because they have facilitated the interests of the creatures involved.

而不是给出更合理的解释 即这些信仰体系之所以能繁荣是因为它们激起了参与者的兴趣

Our belief systems are built around evolutionary success and they certainly contain human benevolence,

我们的信仰体系是围绕进化成功构建起来的 它当然包括人类的仁慈

which is appropriate to phases of history when there is abundance and people can afford to be good to each other.

仁慈在物资充裕人们有能力善待他人的历史时代是很合时宜的

The problem is if you have grown up in a period in which abundance has been the standard state you don’t anticipate the way people change in the face of austerity.

问题是 如果你在很富裕的时段中长大 你就无法预测人们在面对贫瘠时的转变

And so what we are currently seeing is messages that we have all agreed are unacceptable reemerging

所以我们现在看到的是 我们公认为难以接受 再次出现的信息

because the signals that we have reached the end of the boom times, those signals are everywhere,

因为这些信号表明我们已经到达了繁荣期尾声 这些信号无处不在

and so people are triggered to move into a phase that they don’t even know that they have.

于是人们意识到他们即将进入一个不知道自己会拥有什么的阶段

Despite the fact that human beings think that they have escaped the evolutionary paradigm they’ve done nothing of the kind,

虽然人类以为自己躲过了进化范例 但事实并非如此

and so we should expect the belief systems that people hold to mirror the evolutionary interests that people have rather than to match our best instincts—

所以我们应该期待人们所拥有的信仰体系——用来反映进化利益而不是跟我们的最佳本能相匹配——

when we are capable of being good to each other because there’s abundance,

当我们因为富裕而有能力对别人好的时候

we have those instincts and so it’s not incorrect to say that human beings are capable of being marvelous creatures and being quite ethical.

我们有这种本能 所以说人类是一种了不起的生物而且很有道德是正确的

Now I would argue there’s a simple way of reconciling the correct understanding that religious belief often describes truths that,

我倒想说有一种很简单的方法可以调和宗教信仰通常描述的是事实的正确理解

in many cases, fly in the face of what we can understand scientifically, with the idea that these beliefs are adaptive.

在很多情况下 它会与我们从科学角度的理解截然相反 并且认为这些信仰是可以适应的

I call it the state of being literally false and metaphorically true.

我把它叫做看似错误实则正确的状态

A belief is literally false and metaphorically true if it is not factual but if behaving as if it were factual results in an enhancement of one’s fitness.

如果一种信仰并非事实 但却表现得像某个人健康强化后的真实结果 那它就是看似错误实则正确的信仰

To take an example, if one behaves in let’s say the Christian tradition in such a way as to gain access to heaven

举个例子 如果基督教传统中的某个人试图通往天堂

one will not actually find themselves at the pearly gates being welcomed in,

他不可能真的发现自己到了天国之门

but one does tend to place their descendants in a good position with respect to the community that those descendants continue to live in.

但他却有可能把自己的后代放在一个良好的社区中生活

So if we were to think evolutionarily, the person who is behaving so as to get into heaven has genetic interests.

所以如果我们从进化上去想 为了进入天堂而这么做的人会得到基因好处

Those genetic interests are represented in the narrow sense by their immediate descendants and close relatives,

这些基因好处从狭义上讲就是 他的下一代和近亲会受益

in the larger sense they may be represented by the entire population of people from whom that individual came,

从广义上讲就是 这个人的整个种族都会受益

and by acting so as to get into heaven, the fitness of that person,

为了进入天堂而这么做 这个人的健康

the number of copies of those genes that continue to flourish in the aftermath of that person’s death will go up.

以及在他死后会继续繁荣的那些基因复制的数量也会上升

So the belief in heaven is literally false—there is no such place—

所以相信天堂的信仰看似错误——根本就没有天堂这个地方——

but it is metaphorically true in the sense that it results in an increase in fitness.

但它却能改善你的健康 从这点上来看 它是正确的