The story is explaining how these odd conditions of life came to be as they are, which is not to say that it's the ideal situation or even that it's God's will for humankind these are etiological fables, and they're best read as such.

这个故事解释了，这些奇怪的生活状态,并不是说，这些便是理想的,甚至是根据上帝旨意的生活状态,而是阐述为什么会这样的原因，这是最好的解释。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

You may think you've gotten away with something, but every act of social exploitation, every act of moral corruption, pollutes the sanctuary more and more until such time as God is driven out entirely and human society is devoured by its own viciousness and death-dealing.

犯了罪的人也许认为自己侥幸逃过一劫，然而他对所作的每一个行为，每一次的道德堕落，都会越来越玷污圣所,知道有一天上帝完全弃圣所而去,人类社会充斥着我们自身的邪恶和毁灭行为。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

If God replaces my soul every 10 minutes, as long as he does such a way to imprint the very same personality on the soul, it doesn't matter any more than it did matter or not.

若上帝每十分钟改变一次我的灵魂，以此来将同样的人格,装进我的灵魂里，其实这一点根本,无所谓了。

耶鲁公开课 - 死亡课程节选

I think, in fact, a lot of women would say something like, I put my faith in God and I think I might bring down God's wrath if I did such a thing as to bet that my husband is going to die.

其实我觉得,不少女人会这样说,我是个教徒,我觉得如果我拿我丈夫的,性命去赌博,我会遭天谴的

耶鲁公开课 - 金融市场课程节选