The little old lady in a small village in southwest China was amazed. She cried out, “I can see, I can see!” Even though she couldn’t see things very clearly, she now recognized her family whom she hadn’t seen for years. The eye team from our medical mission had just performed a minor miracle again. Just like similar minor miracles again and again, over nearly 2 decades of work, in little villages where high tech medical care was difficult to reach. And it was always such a great joy to see the responses, the smiles, and the appreciation which the families had for the team and it’s efforts. In point of fact, in today’s modern high tech hospitals, the most common critical eye problem these villagers had, cataracts of older age, is easily treated. But not if you are old and living in poverty in a remote village, in many mountain areas of the world.

中国西南部小镇的老妇人简直惊呆了，她大叫：“我看到了，我看到了！”尽管她看得还不清楚，但她可以认出她的家人，她已经好多年没有目睹他们了。我们医疗团的眼科小分队刚刚又展示了个小奇迹。在高端医疗服务难以到达的小村庄，在近20年的服务里，这样的小奇迹一次又一次的出现。很高兴看到村民们这样的反应、他们的微笑、他们家庭对医疗队所付出的努力的感激。事实上，在当前技术雄厚的医院，村民们所患的很常见又很严重的眼疾—–老年性白内障是容易治疗的。但是如果你生活在边远的山区小村庄，老且穷，那可就难了。

For the medical mission team, it was easy to associate the joy of this woman, with the joy of the blind man healed by Christ, who was vividly recorded for us thousands of years ago. The critics of Christ at the time, who did not appreciate his miracles, were harassing the formerly blind man, after the healing. They wanted to see if there was some fault in his account, and especially if there was something they could accuse the man who had healed him. But, the ex-blind man exclaimed, “I don’t know much about this man (Christ), but one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see!” Truly, he wasn’t really sure how it could have happened, nor could he discuss the philosophy or theology of what happened, but he knew for sure what had happened to his eyesight. Indeed, having eyesight is a world of difference from having no eyesight, and those of us who have normal vision, take our eyes for granted, and oftentimes forget how truly amazing these eyes really are.

医疗队很容易从老妇人的快乐联想到被基督治愈的盲人的快乐，基督治疗盲人的事迹几千年前就被生动的记录下来。那时候的基督反对者，他们不但不理解基督的神迹，反倒去挑剔被治愈的盲人。他们企图找出盲人诉说中的破绽，特别想找出点什么证据好控告治愈他的人。但是，那个盲人坚称：“我对他（基督）所知不多，但是一件事我很确定：之前我眼瞎，现在我可以看了”。是的，他并不清楚神迹怎么发生的，也不会探讨所发生的事的哲学或神学意义，但是他确知他的视力的变化。事实上，和盲人比，有视力简直是另外一番天地，有正常视力的我们，对我们的视力习以为常，常常忘记了有眼力是多么美好的事情。

We all know that science has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last century. When I was a teenager studying in high school, half a century ago, the science books used to call the cell, “the simple cell,” because truly there was so little really known about it. Well, we know now that the cell is definitely not simple. In fact it is so complicated it “hurts your brain” to think of it. And you can guess, 150 years ago, when Charles Darwin was roaming around in the Galapagos Islands, his knowledge of science, especially of biology, was so rudimentary, that we have difficulty even imagining that lack of today’s ordinary knowledge. It is close to the difference between cataract affected blindness, and cataract removed eyesight

我们知道科技从上一个世纪以来飞速发展，日新月异。半个世纪前，我还是在中学读书的少年，科技书刊曾经认为细胞是“简单的细胞”，因为那时对细胞知之甚少。然而我们现在知道了细胞可不是那么简单。事实上它是如此复杂，就是绞尽脑汁也想不明白。你可以想象，150年前，卡尔.达尔文在加拉巴哥群岛环游的时候，他的科技知识特别是生物学，是如此浅薄，我们难以想象其知识粗浅得连我们今日的常识都不具备。这就像白内障让人视物混沌，而摘除白内障后眼前一片澄明一样。

Imagine, there was then no electron microscope, no knowledge of cellular functions, no knowledge of genes and DNA, no knowledge of how genes work at the molecular level etc. etc., something unimaginable to the average middle school student today. The difference in understanding gives us an appreciation of why people of Darwin’s generation would come up with philosophical theories that are now known not to be possible. The complexity of the body systems was then totally unknown, and truly today any part of the body, any tissue, any cell is known to fantastically more complex than anyone could have even dreamed of at that time.

可以想想，那时没有显微电镜，没有细胞功能的知识，没有基因和DNA的知识, 没有基因在分子水平怎样发挥作用的知识等等，那时候知识的匮乏对今天普通中学的学生而言是难以想象的。不同的理解能力让我们明白达尔文时代的人为什么持有的是我们现在认为是不可能的哲学理论。机体系统的复杂性那时是完全未知的，机体的任何部位、任何组织、任何细胞现在看来都是相当的复杂远远超越了那个时候的人的想象。

I have read Darwin’s book “The Origin of Species” with that perspective in mind, and I can sympathize with his trying to understand what was actually going on in biology. Literally, millions of obstacles, filters and clouded vision were between him and the objects of his study. And so, I have always been very empathetic that his inquiring mind tried really hard, and am impressed that he could see, even dimly, that there were certain things that he intuitively knew had huge problems. When he looked at the eye, he realized that the complexity of function that was known even at that time, was truly astonishingly frightening to him. He wrote, in his book, “to suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, admitting different amounts of light, and correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” I admire him for his astute observation, perfectly correctly, that natural selection, a key principle in his theory, was totally stumped. He freely confessed that it was “absurd to the highest degree.”

我带着那样的观点读过达尔文的书《物种起源》，我很理解他试图搞清楚生物学上物种发展所做的努力。事实上，成千上万的障碍、模棱两可的观点呈现在他和他所研究的物种上。他探寻尽了不懈努力，他感受到某种印象，这种印象还有些朦胧，但是自觉告诉他存在着巨大的问题，对此我深有同感。他探寻尽了不懈努力，他感受到某种印象，这种印象还有些朦胧，但是直觉告诉他存在着巨大的问题，但他关注到眼睛，他被在那个时代就已经认识到的眼睛功能的复杂性所深深的震惊了。在书中他写道： “眼睛有着独特的设计用來调节不同远近物体的焦距，接納不同强度的光线，调整球面和色彩差度，如果认为这些都是自然选择形成的，我坦承，这个观点荒谬至极。” 我欣赏他机敏的观察，确实是这样的，他的理论的核心自然选择，难以自圆其说。他坦承那是“荒谬至极”。

Darwin’s humility is refreshing even today. As he was shocked by the complexity of the eye; to use a common jargon, there are zillions of other examples all over the body, of systems, of organs, of tissues, of cells where this comment would be totally applicable. He recognized that there were huge holes in his theory, “absurd to the highest degree,” which holes are today fantastically bigger and much more impossible to be covered over by a statement that “natural selection” will “somehow” take care of it. Somehow is the key. In fact, “how” is the province of science, old and modern, and if we cannot demonstrate the “how” we have lost our job. Theories are nice, but over 150 years, the difficulties have gotten infinitely worse, and this theory totally fails, because we have no way of showing “how” it could have happened. “The devil is in the details,” as they say. Indeed, “how” could the eye have formed? “How could it have evolved?” The silence is deafening.

达尔文的谦逊就是今天也让人崇敬。他被眼睛的复杂性所震惊。借用一句，来自机体全身、系统、器官、组织、细胞的数不清的例子都可以完全适用这个评语。他意识到他的理论有很大的漏洞，“荒谬至极。” 这个漏洞以今天看來可就更大了，它不能只是 “某种程度上” 的修正“自然选择” 的论调就可以弥平的。因为“某种程度上”是个关键。“怎样发生”是科学的重要领域，过去或者现在，如果我们不能证实“怎样发生, how?”，我们的工作就失去了意义。理论看上去很美好，但是150年过去了，雪上加霜，因为我们没能证明自然选择如何发生，这个理论彻底破产了。谚语说：“the devil is in the details,魔鬼躲在细微处。”事实上，眼睛如何形成的？它是如何进化的？答案可能是 “沉默”卻是“震耳欲聋的。”

My personal opinion is actually quite simple: Darwin had gone to seminary, and so he was schooled in philosophy. But he dropped out of seminary. Then he was sent to medical school, but he dropped out also. And he had no postgraduate training, no PhD. He was from a rich family, the cultural elite of the time, he did not have to earn a living, and basically, he was trying to figure out philosophically who we are on this earth. So, with family money and connections, he embarked on this journey, basically around the world, to test his thinking. Of course, he had no concept of modern physiology or molecular biology, no epidemiologic training, no statistics training. By today’s standards I suppose he was at best like a modern 7th grade level student in science. But he had to make do with what he knew at the time, and his perception about his limits is revealing.

我的个人观点很简单：达尔文上过神学院，他受过哲学教育。但是他从神学院退学了。他去了医学院，也退学了。他没有接受过研究生培训，没有博士教育。他出生富家，是那时的文化精英，他不用谋生，他只是在琢磨，从哲学角度探讨“在这个地球上我们是谁？”这样的问题。家庭的经济资助和安排，他开始了环游世界的旅程，去验证他的想法。当然他没有现代生理学、分子生物学的理念，没有流行病学的培训，没有统计学的学习。以现在的标准看，我认为他充其量相当于7年级学生的科技水平。但他还是用当时他所知道的去分析，他感受到了他认识上的局限性。

When we look at the eye today in modern science, which might only be a fraction of what we might know a hundred years later, it behooves us to be humble, and to appreciate the limits of our knowledge. Even now, we should recognize that the impossibly complex system that is the eye, is so wonderfully constructed, so complexly integrated, and so mathematically precise, that a vastly superior intelligence who designed it all, is still our best conclusion. And actually, it is the best conclusion for everything else in the body. A Creator, not a new idea, but an idea from the beginning of time, in nearly all cultures and races of mankind. A conclusion that ties together many disparate facts, and gives us a reason for our own existence.

用现代科技去研究眼睛，我们现在所知道的讯息也许是一百年后的小部分，这让我们学会谦逊，懂得承认我们知识的有限。就是现在，我们也应认识到复杂至极的系统—–眼睛，它是如此完美的构建，是如此复杂的组合，如此的精准，只有超级智能才能设计出来，这是我们的最佳结论。事实上关于机体任何部分也是也是如此。造物主的观点，不是新的，而是从亙古就有的观念，並存在于所有的不同层次和种族的人中。这个观点串联起许多不同的现象，也回答了我们存在的缘由。