万物简史 第99期:势不两立的科学(7)

Unfortunately, having had his insight, Smith wascuriously uninterested in understanding why rockswere laid down in the way they were. "I have left offpuzzling about the origin of Strata and contentmyself with knowing that it is so," he recorded. "Thewhys and wherefores cannot come within theProvince of a Mineral Surveyor."

不幸的是，尽管史密斯具有敏锐的见解，但说来也怪，他没有兴趣搞清为什么岩石偏偏以那种方式埋在地下。“我没有再研究岩层的起源，满足于知道情况就是那样，”他写道，“什么原因，什么缘故，那不属于一名矿藏测量员的研究范围。”

Smith's revelation regarding strata heightened the moral awkwardness concerningextinctions. To begin with, it confirmed that God had wiped out creatures not occasionallybut repeatedly. This made Him seem not so much careless as peculiarly hostile. It also madeit inconveniently necessary to explain how some species were wiped out while others continuedunimpeded into succeeding eons.

史密斯对岩层内情的披露，更增加了绝种论引起的在道德上的难堪程度。首先，它证实了上帝消灭生灵不是偶然的，而是经常的。这么看来，上帝与其说是粗心大意，不如说是极不友好。而且，还有必要花点力气来进行解释，为什么有的物种彻底灭绝，而有的物种却顺利地存活到随后的年代。

Clearly there was more to extinctions than could be accounted for by a single Noachian deluge,as the Biblical flood was known. Cuvier resolved the matter to his own satisfaction bysuggesting that Genesis applied only to the most recent inundation. God, it appeared, hadn'twished to distract or alarm Moses with news of earlier, irrelevant extinctions.

显而易见，绝种不是诺亚时代的一场“大激流”——即大家知道的《圣经》里的那场洪水——能解释清楚的。居维叶作出了自我满意的解释，认为《创世记》只是指最近的那场洪水。上帝似乎不希望用先前不相干的绝种来分散摩西的注意力或引起他的惊慌。