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KwameAnthonyAppiah_2014S-_宗教究竟是好是坏_（一个引人深思的问题）_
People say things about religion all the time. 人们常常讨论宗教。
(Laughter) （观衆笑声）
The late, great Christopher Hitchens wrote a book called "God Is Not Great" 已逝的着名作家克里斯托弗·希钦斯 写了一本书叫做《上帝不伟大》,
(Laughter) （观众笑声）
But last month, in Time magazine, 但是上个月,时代杂志刊登了
Rabbi David Wolpe, who I gather is referred to as America's rabbi, said, to balance that against that negative characterization , that no important form of social change can be brought about except through organized religion. 拉比大卫·沃普的一段话,他被公认为美国的拉比（智者）, 反驳这些对宗教的负面描述, 他说:任何形式的社会改革 都只能通过有组织的宗教活动进行。
Rabbi:n.拉比(犹太人的学者);法师;犹太教律法专家;先生; referred:v.提到;引用;认为;指示;涉及;(refer的过去式和过去分词) negative:adj.[数]负的;消极的;否定的;阴性的;n.否定;负数;[摄]底片;v.否定;拒绝; characterization:n.描述;特性描述; organized:adj.有组织的; v.组织; (organize的过去分词和过去式)
Now, remarks of this sort on the negative and the positive side are very old. 这些关于宗教正面与负面的评价 都是老生常谈了。
remarks:n.评论(remark的复数);摘要;附注; positive:adj.积极的;[数]正的,[医][化学]阳性的;确定的;n.正数;[摄]正片;
I have one in my pocket here from the first century BCE by Lucretius, the author of "On the Nature of Things," who said, "Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum " -- 我口袋里就有一句话是 公元一世纪的卢克莱斯说的, 他是《物性论》的作者,他这样说道,
malorum:用法,发音,音标,搭配,同义词,反义词和例句等在线英语服务。;
I should have been able to learn that by heart — which is, that's how much religion is able to persuade people to do evil , and he was talking about the fact of Agamemnon's decision to place his daughter 我应该把这句话背下来。 这句话的意思就是,宗教 就是这样怂恿人们向恶。 他讲诉了 阿伽蒙农爲了军队无往不胜
persuade:v.说服;劝说;使信服;使相信; evil:adj.邪恶的;不幸的;有害的;讨厌的;n.罪恶,邪恶;不幸;
Iphigenia on an altar of sacrifice in order to preserve the prospects of his army. 而要把他自己的女儿依菲琴妮娅 送上祭坛作爲牺牲的事实。
altar:n.祭坛;圣坛;圣餐台; sacrifice:n.牺牲;舍弃;祭献;祭祀;祭品;v.牺牲;献出;作祭献 preserve:vt.保存;保护;维持;腌;禁猎;n.保护区;禁猎地;加工成的食品; prospects:n.可能性; v.探矿; (prospect的第三人称单数和复数)
So there have been these long debates over the centuries, in that case, actually, we can say over the millennia , about religion. 所以这些关于宗教的辩论 已经持续了几个世纪,而按这个例子来看, 我们可以说关于宗教的争论已经持续了几千年。
debates:n.[法]辩论;讨论(debate的复数);v.[法]辩论;讨论(debate的三单形式); millennia:n.千年期(millennium的复数);一千年;千年庆典;太平盛世;
People have talked about it a lot, and they've said good and bad and indifferent things about it. 人们经常讨论这个话题, 他们表达了很多关于宗教的好的坏的 和无所谓的观点。
indifferent:adj.漠不关心的;无关紧要的;中性的,中立的;
What I want to persuade you of today is of a very simple claim, which is that these debates are in a certain sense preposterous , because there is no such thing as religion about which to make these claims . 我今天想跟大家说的, 是一个简单的观点。 那就是,这些争论 从某种意义上来说都是荒谬可笑的, 那是因爲这个世界上根本就没有宗教这个东西, 所以这些争论纯是无稽之谈。
preposterous:adj.荒谬的;可笑的; claims:v.宣称; n.声明; (claim的第三人称单数和复数)
There isn't a thing called religion, and so it can't be good or bad. 既然没有宗教这个东西 也就没有好于坏之分,
It can't even be indifferent. 甚至都不可能对其无所谓。
And if you think about claims about the nonexistence of things, one obvious way to try and establish the nonexistence of a purported thing would be to offer a definition of that thing and then to see whether anything satisfied it. 如果你想想这些关于 事物的不存在性的观点, 有一个显而易见的 来确定这些想像的事物的不存在性的方法 就是先提出一个定义, 然后看看哪些事物符合这个定义。
nonexistence:n.不存在;不存在的事; obvious:adj.明显的;显著的;平淡无奇的; establish:v.创立;设立;建立;确立;使立足;查实; purported:adj.据称的;传言的;v.声称;自称;标榜;(purport的过去分词和过去式) definition:n.定义;清晰度;(尤指词典里的词或短语的)释义;解释; satisfied:adj.满意的:满足的:v.使满意:使满足;(satisfy的过去分词和过去式)
I'm going to start out on that little route to begin with. 现在我准备就开始 以这一点开始讨论。
route:n.路线;路途;固定线路;途径;v.按某路线发送;
So if you look in the dictionaries and if you think about it, one very natural definition of religion is that it involves belief in gods or in spiritual beings. 如果你去查字典, 如果你想想这些事情, 一个对宗教的非常自然的解释就是 宗教是对神灵和有神性事物的信仰。
involves:v.包含;需要;牵涉;牵连;影响;(使)参加,加入(involve的第三人称单数) spiritual:n.圣歌(尤指美国南部黑人的);adj.精神的,心灵的;
As I say, this is in many dictionaries, but you'll also find it actually in the work of Sir Edward Tylor, who was the first professor of anthropology at Oxford, one of the first modern anthropologists . 我是说,这是在很多字典裏面的解释, 但是你也会发现其实在 牛津大学第一位人类学教授, 现代人类学先锋之一, 爵士爱德华泰勒的着作中就提到过。
anthropology:n.人类学;人类学家; anthropologists:[人类]人类学家;
In his book on primitive culture, he says the heart of religion is what he called animism , that is, the belief in spiritual agency , belief in spirits . 在他的有关原始文化的书里面, 他提到,宗教的核心就是万物有灵, 也就是相信神体, 信仰灵性。
primitive:adj.原始的,远古的;简单的,粗糙的;n.原始人; animism:n.泛灵论;万物有灵论;神力主宰论(认为有某种力量掌管宇宙); agency:n.代理,中介;代理处,经销处; in spirits:adv.兴致勃勃;
The first problem for that definition is from a recent novel by Paul Beatty called " Tuff ." 这个定义的第一个挑战 来自最近保罗贝·蒂的一本小说《塔夫》。
novel:adj.新奇的;异常的;n.小说; Tuff:adj.一流的;n.[岩]凝灰岩;
There's a guy talking to a rabbi. 他写到一个人向拉比求教,
The rabbi says he doesn't believe in God. 拉比说他自己不相信上帝。
The guy says, "You're a rabbi, how can you not believe in God?" 那人就说“你可是拉比啊,你怎么能不相信上帝？”
And the reply is, "It's what's so great about being Jewish . 回答是“这就是做犹太人的好处。”
Jewish:adj.犹太人的;犹太族的;
You don't have to believe in a God per se , just in being Jewish." (Laughter) 你不需要去相信上帝本身, 只要相信自己是犹太人。“（笑声）
per se:adv.本身;本质上;
So if this guy is a rabbi, and a Jewish rabbi, and if you have to believe in God in order to be religious , then we have the rather counterintuitive conclusion that since it's possible to be a Jewish rabbi without believing in God, 所以如果这个人是拉比,并且是犹太拉比, 而如果只有信仰上帝才算信教, 那么我们会得到一个有悖常理的结论, 那就是你不可能成爲一位不信仰上帝的 犹太拉比,
religious:adj.宗教的;虔诚的;严谨的;修道的;n.修道士;尼姑; counterintuitive:adj.违反直觉的; conclusion:n.结论;结局;推论;
Judaism isn't a religion. 犹太教不是一个宗教。
Judaism:n.犹太教;(总称)犹太人;犹太主义;
That seems like a pretty counterintuitive thought. 这个结论似乎有悖常理。
Here's another argument against this view. 这里还有另外一个反驳这个定义的观点。
A friend of mine, an Indian friend of mine, went to his grandfather when he was very young, a child, and said to him, "I want to talk to you about religion," 我有一个印度的朋友, 他年轻的时候去他祖父家, 还是个小孩,他跟祖父说, “我想跟你谈谈宗教。”
and his grandfather said, "You're too young. 祖父回答他说:“你还太小。
Come back when you're a teenager." 等你长大成少年了再来找我。“
So he came back when he was a teenager, and he said to his grandfather, "It may be a bit late now because I've discovered that I don't believe in the gods." 所以他长大成少年后又去找他祖父, 他跟祖父说: “现在可能有点晚了, 因爲我发现自己根本不相信有神灵。“
And his grandfather, who was a wise man, said, "Oh, so you belong to the atheist branch of the Hindu tradition." (Laughter) 他的祖父是一个很有智慧的人,他说道: “哦,所以你是属于印度教 无神论派的喽。”（笑声）
atheist:n.无神论者; Hindu:adj.印度的;印度教的;n.印度人;印度教教徒;
And finally , there's this guy, who famously doesn't believe in God. 最后,这人 成了世界有名的不相信神的人。
finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地; famously:adv.著名地;极好地;
His name is the Dalai Lama . 他的名字是达赖喇嘛。
Dalai Lama:n.达赖喇嘛(西藏佛教领袖,从前为西藏统治者);
He often jokes that he's one of the world's leading atheists . 他经常开玩笑的说自己是世界上领先的无神论者。
atheists:n.无神论者;
But it's true, because the Dalai Lama's religion does not involve belief in God. 但是这是真的,因爲达赖喇嘛的宗教信仰 并不包括信仰神。
Now you might think this just shows that I've given you the wrong definition and that I should come up with some other definition and test it against these cases and try and find something that captures atheistic Judaism, atheistic Hinduism , and atheistic Buddhism as forms of religiosity , but I actually think that that's a bad idea, and the reason I think it's a bad idea is that I don't think that's how our concept of religion works. 现在你可能认爲这只能说明 我提出了一个错误的定义。 那么我必须得重新定义, 然后再檢验这些例子, 找到一个可以涵盖 无神犹太教,无神印度教 和无神佛教的宗教定义, 但是其实我认爲这不是个好主意, 我认爲这不是个好主意的理由是 我不认爲 我们的宗教概念是这样来的。
come up with:提出;想出;赶上; captures:v.俘虏;捕获;攻占;夺得;争得;(capture的第三人称单数) atheistic:adj.无神论的;无神论者的; Hinduism:n.印度教; Buddhism:n.佛教; religiosity:n.虔诚;宗教狂;虚伪信仰;
I think the way our concept of religion works is that we actually have, we have a list of paradigm religions and their sub-parts, right, and if something new comes along that purports to be a religion, what we ask is, "Well, is it like one of these?" 我认爲我们的宗教概念是这样来的, 我们实际上有的是一个 宗教范例的列表 和其支系的清单,对么, 如果有新的 声称是宗教的事物出现, 我们只需要问“这个是其中之一么？”
paradigm:n.范例;词形变化表; purports:vt.声称;意图;意指;打算;n.意义,主旨;意图;
Right? 对么？
And I think that's not only how we think about religion, and that's, as it were , so from our point of view , anything on that list had better be a religion, which is why I don't think an account of religion that excludes Buddhism and Judaism has a chance of being a good starter , because they're on our list. 我认爲我们不止这样理解宗教, 而且,从某种意义上来说, 我们认为 那个列表上所列的应该都是宗教, 这就是爲什么我认爲 无法包含佛教和犹太教的宗教定义 不是一个好的开始, 因爲这两个宗教都在我们的列表上。
as it were:可以说是,似乎就是;好像; point of view:观点;见地;立场; excludes:v.不包括; (exclude的第三人称单数) starter:n.起动机;发令员;第一道菜;发射装置;发起者;参加比赛者,上场队员;
But why do we have such a list? 但是我们爲什么有这样一个列表呢？
What's going on? How did it come about that we have this list? 到底发生了什么？ 我们是怎么想到要这样一个列表呢？
I think the answer is a pretty simple one and therefore crude and contentious . 我认爲答案非常简单, 也因此粗糙和争议不断。
crude:adj.粗略的;简略的;大概的;粗糙的;n.原油;石油; contentious:adj.诉讼的;有异议的,引起争论的;爱争论的;
I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with it, but here's my story, and true or not, it's a story that I think gives you a good sense of how the list might have come about, and therefore helps you to think about what use the list might be. 我相信很多人都会持反对观点, 但是这是我的故事, 不管是真是假,我认爲 这个故事告诉我们 这个列表是怎样来的, 也因此可以幫助你思考 这个列表的作用。
good sense:n.正确的决策力(或判断力);理智;
I think the answer is, European travelers, starting roughly about the time of Columbus, started going around the world. 我认爲答案就是,欧洲的旅行家们, 粗略地从哥伦布开始算起, 开始环游世界。
roughly:adv.粗糙地;概略地;
They came from a Christian culture, and when they arrived in a new place, they noticed that some people didn't have Christianity , and so they asked themselves the following question: what have they got instead of Christianity? 他们都是来自基督教文化, 当他们来到一个新地方, 他们发现有些人并不信仰基督教, 所以他们就问自己这个问题: 没有基督教,他们有什么？
Christianity:n.基督教;基督教精神,基督教教义;
And that list was essentially constructed . 由此一个列表就诞生了。
essentially:adv.本质上;本来; constructed:v.修建;建造;组成;编制,绘制;(construct的过去分词和过去式)
It consists of the things that other people had instead of Christianity. 这个列表包括了很多 非基督教的信仰。
consists:v.由…构成;由…组成(consist的三单形式);
Now there's a difficulty with proceeding in that way, which is that Christianity is extremely , even on that list, it's an extremely specific tradition. 到这里我们就遇到了一个问题, 基督教,即使在这个列表上面, 有着非常具体的传统。
proceeding:n.进行;程序;诉讼;事项;v.开始;继续做;行进(proceed的现在分词); extremely:adv.非常,极其;极端地;
It has all kinds of things in it that are very, very particular that are the results of the specifics of Christian history, and one thing that's at the heart of it, 它包含了各种各样的 非常独特的东西, 这些都是由其独特的基督历史 所形成的结果, 而居于此核心的是,
specifics:n.细节;特性(specific的复数);详情;
one thing that's at the heart of most understandings of Christianity, which is the result of the specific history of Christianity, is that it's an extremely creedal religion. 大部分对由独特基督教历史所形成的 基督教的理解的核心是, 它是非常教条的宗教。
It's a religion in which people are really concerned about whether you believe the right things. 这个宗教非常注重 你是否信仰正确的事物。
concerned:adj.有关的;关心的;v.关心;与…有关;(concern的过去时和过去分词)
The history of Christianity, the internal history of Christianity, is largely the history of people killing each other because they believed the wrong thing, and it's also involved in struggles with other religions, obviously starting in the Middle Ages , a struggle with Islam, in which, again, it was the infidelity , 基督教的历史,它内部的历史, 大部分是人们互相残杀的历史, 因爲他们信仰了错误的事物, 这历史还包括了 与其他宗教的争斗, 当然是由中世纪开始, 和伊斯兰的冲突, 就是因爲无神论,
internal:n.内脏;本质;adj.内部的;里面的;体内的;(机构)内部的; largely:adv.主要地;大部分;大量地; involved:adj.有关的; v.涉及; (involve的过去式和过去分词) Middle Ages:n.中世纪(欧洲历史上从公元1000年到1450年); infidelity:n.(夫妻或伴侣间的)不忠行为;通奸;
the fact that they didn't believe the right things, that seemed so offensive to the Christian world. 因爲他们不信仰正确的事物, 让基督教世界感到备受侮辱。
offensive:n.进攻;攻势;攻击;侵犯;adj.冒犯的;得罪人的;无礼的;
Now that's a very specific and particular history that Christianity has, and not everywhere is everything that has ever been put on this sort of list like it. 这是基督教历史 非常独特的地方, 不是所有被放在这个清单上的东西 都是这样的。
Here's another problem, I think. 我认爲,还有一个问题,
A very specific thing happened. 一件非常特殊的事情发生了。
It was actually adverted to earlier, but a very specific thing happened in the history of the kind of Christianity that we see around us mostly in the United States today, and it happened in the late 19th century, and that specific thing that happened in the late 19th century was a kind of deal that was cut between science, this new way of organizing intellectual authority , and religion. 其实我们前面有提到过, 我们现在大部分美国人 所熟知的基督教历史上 发生了 一件非常重要的事情, 这件事情发生在十九世纪后期。 这件发生在十九世纪后期的 特殊的事情 在科学与宗教之间 树立了界限, 科学成为了新的 组织知识的权威。
United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式) organizing:v.组织;安排;处理;分配;管理;(organize的现在分词) intellectual:n.知识分子;脑力劳动者;adj.智力的;脑力的;理智的;有才智的; authority:n.权威;权力;当局;
If you think about the 18th century, say, if you think about intellectual life before the late 19th century, anything you did, anything you thought about, whether it was the physical world, the human world, the natural world apart from the human world, or morality , anything you did would have been framed against the background of a set of assumptions that were religious, 你设想一下十八世纪, 你设想一下 十九世纪以前的知识界, 你做的任何事,想的任何事, 不管是物质世界, 人类世界, 还是与人类相对的自然世界, 或是道德,你做的任何事 都会被放在 宗教信仰、基督教信仰的
physical:adj.[物]物理的;身体的;物质的;符合自然法则的;n.体格检查; morality:n.道德;品行,美德; framed:v.给…做框;给…镶边;制订;拟订;(frame的过去分词和过去式) assumptions:n.假定;假设;承担;获得;(assumption的复数)
Christian assumptions. 背景下去考虑。
You couldn't give an account of the natural world that didn't say something about its relationship, for example, to the creation story in the Abrahamic tradition, the creation story in the first book of the Torah . 你会发现 任何一个对自然世界的描述 都涉及到自然世界与宗教世界的关联, 比如,亚伯拉罕故事中的 创世论, 第一本犹太宗教律法《托拉》中的创世论。
creation:n.创造,创作;创作物,产物; Torah:n.律法;圣经旧约之首五卷;
So everything was framed in that way. 所有的东西都是跟宗教有关的。
But this changes in the late 19th century, and for the first time, it's possible for people to develop serious intellectual careers as natural historians like Darwin. 但是十九世纪后期发生了改变, 这是第一次,人们可以 认真从事科学事業, 就像自然历史学家达尔文那样。
careers:n.职业(career的复数);事业;职业生涯;v.全速前进(career的三单形式);
Darwin worried about the relationship between what he said and the truths of religion, but he could proceed, he could write books about his subject without having to say what the relationship was to the religious claims, and similarly , geologists increasingly could talk about it. 达尔文担忧他所说的 和宗教真相之间的关系, 但是他能够继续, 并写下自己的题材, 而不需要提及它们与 宗教信仰之间的关系, 相同地,地质学家也可以开始逐渐发表言论。
similarly:adv.同样地;类似于; geologists:n.[地质]地质学家(geologist的复数形式); increasingly:adv.越来越多地;渐增地;
In the early 19th century, if you were a geologist and made a claim about the age of the Earth, you had to explain whether that was consistent or how it was or wasn't consistent with the age of the Earth implied by the account in Genesis . 在十九世纪初期,如果你是一个地质学家 对地球的年纪进行推测, 你必须解释这个年纪 是否与创世纪中提到的 地球年纪吻合, 怎样吻合或是怎样不吻合。
consistent:adj.始终如一的,一致的;坚持的; implied:adj.不言而喻的; v.含有…的意思; (imply的过去分词和过去式) Genesis:n.发生;起源;
By the end of the 19th century, you can just write a geology textbook in which you make arguments about how old the Earth is. 到了十九世纪末期, 你则可以写一本地质学的教科书, 里面谈到你对地球年纪的推测。
geology:n.地质学;地质情况;
So there's a big change, and that division , that intellectual division of labor occurs as I say, I think, and it sor t of < font color="Black"> solidifies so that by the end of the 19th century in Europe, there's a real intellectual division of labor, and you can do all sorts of serious things, including, increasingly, even philosophy , without being constrained by the thought, "Well, what I have to say has to be consistent with the deep truths that are given to me by our religious tradition." 所以这是一个很大的改变,这种分离, 使得脑力劳动分工得以发生, 在十九世纪末期的欧洲 更加得到了巩固, 产生了真正意义上的脑力劳动分工, 你可以做很多严肃的事情, 包括很多,甚至哲学, 思想不再被禁锢, “我所说的需要与 宗教教会我的事实 保持一致。”
division:n.师;分配;分开;分歧; solidifies:vt.团结;凝固;vi.团结;凝固; philosophy:n.哲学;哲理;人生观; constrained:adj.不自然的; v.约束; (constrain的过去分词和过去式)
So imagine someone who's coming out of that world, that late-19th-century world, coming into the country that I grew up in, Ghana, the society that I grew up in, Asante, coming into that world at the turn of the 20th century with this question that made the list: what have they got instead of Christianity? 想像一下一个人走出 那个十九世纪末期的世界, 来到我成长的国家,加纳, 我成长的社会,阿桑特部落, 来到20世纪转折点的 那个世界, 带着形成那个清单的问题: 没有基督教,他们有什么？
Well, here's one thing he would have noticed, and by the way , there was a person who actually did this. 有个事情他将会注意到, 顺便一提,的确有人注意到了。
by the way:顺便说一下;
His name was Captain Rattray, he was sent as the British government anthropologist, and he wrote a book about Asante religion. 他的名字叫船长拉特雷, 他是英国政府派遣的人类学家, 写了一本关于阿桑特宗教的书。
This is a soul disc. 这是一个灵魂盘,
There are many of them in the British Museum. 大英博物馆有很多。
I could give you an interesting, different history of how it comes about that many of the things from my society ended up in the British Museum, but we don't have time for that. 我可以给你一个有趣的、不一样的历史, 关于我们部落的东西 最后是怎么跑到大英博物馆的, 但是我们现在没有时间讲这个。
So this object is a soul disc. 言归正传,这是一个灵魂盘。
What is a soul disc? 什么是灵魂盘？
It was worn around the necks of the soul-washers of the Asante king. 这是绕在阿桑特国王的 灵魂洗涤人的脖子上的东西。
What was their job? To wash the king's soul. 他们的工作是什么？洗涤国王的灵魂。
It would take a long while to explain how a soul could be the kind of thing that could be washed, but Rattray knew that this was religion because souls were in play. 估计得花不少时间 来解释灵魂这种东西 怎么能被洗, 但是拉特雷知道这是宗教, 因爲有灵魂参与其中。
And similarly, there were many other things, many other practices. 同样的, 还有很多其他的东西,仪式。
For example, every time anybody had a drink, more or less , they poured a little bit on the ground in what's called the libation , and they gave some to the ancestors. 举个例子,任何人每次喝东西,多多少少 总要泼一点在地上, 这被称爲祭酒, 他们献一点给祖先。
more or less:或多或少; poured:v.使(液体)连续流出;倾倒;倒出;喷发;(pour的过去分词和过去式) libation:n.饮酒;奠酒祭神仪式(形容词libationary);
My father did this. Every time he opened a bottle of whiskey , which I'm glad to say was very often, he would take the top off and pour off just a little on the ground, and he would talk to, 我的父亲也会这样做。每次他打开一瓶威士忌, 我很高兴地说,他经常这样做, 他会去掉瓶盖,倒一点在地上, 然后他会跟,
whiskey:n.威士忌酒;adj.威士忌酒的;
he would say to Akroma-Ampim, the founder of our line, or Yao Antony, my great uncle, he would talk to them, offer them a little bit of this. 他会跟我们的祖先 Akroma-Ampim 或者姚?安东尼,我的祖叔叔, 他会跟他们交流, 给他们尝点这酒。
founder:vi.失败;沉没;倒塌;变跛;vt.破坏;使摔倒;垮掉;n.创始人;建立者;翻沙工;
And finally, there were these huge public ceremonials. 最后,还有大的公衆庆典。
This is an early-19th-century drawing by another British military officer of such a ceremonial , where the king was involved, and the king's job, one of the large parts of his job, 这是十九世纪早期 另一位英国军官画的 这样一个庆典的画作, 国王也在其中, 国王的任务, 他最主要的任务,
military:adj.军事的;军人的;适于战争的;n.军队;军人; ceremonial:adj.仪式的;正式的,礼仪的;n.仪式,礼节;
apart from organizing warfare and things like that, was to look after the tombs of his ancestors, and when a king died, the stool that he sat on was blackened and put in the royal ancestral temple, and every 40 days, the King of Asante has to go and do cult for his ancestors. 除了组织打仗之类的事情外, 就是照看祖先的坟墓, 当一个国王去世, 他坐过的椅子会被涂黑 并被放在皇室祖坟庙裏, 每40天, 阿桑特国王就要去一次,祭拜一下 他的祖先。
warfare:n.战争;冲突; stool:n.凳子;大便;粪便;v.长出新枝;排便 blackened:adj.变黑的;被损坏的;v.使…变黑;弄脏;损坏(blacken的过去分词); royal:adj.国王的;女王的;皇家的;n.王室成员; ancestral:adj.祖先的;祖传的; cult:n.崇拜; adj.受特定群体欢迎的;
That's a large part of his job, and people think that if he doesn't do it, things will fall apart . 这是他的主要工作 , 人们觉得如果国王没有做到这点, 这个国家就要分崩离析了。
fall apart:崩溃;土崩瓦解;破碎;
So he's a religious figure, as Rattray would have said, as well as a political figure. 所以国王既是一个宗教领袖, 就像拉特雷会说的, 也是一个政治领袖。
as well as:也;和…一样;不但…而且;
So all this would count as religion for Rattray, but my point is that when you look into the lives of those people, you also find that every time they do anything, they're conscious of the ancestors. 所有的这些对拉特雷来说都是宗教, 而我想说的是,当你 注意观察这些人的生活时, 你也会发现每次他们做任何事情 都会想着祖先们。
conscious of:意识到;
Every morning at breakfast, you can go outside the front of the house and make an offering to the god tree, the nyame dua outside your house, and again, you'll talk to the gods and the high gods and the low gods and the ancestors and so on. 每天早晨吃早饭的时候, 你要走到房子前方 给你房子外面的 圣树献上一些祭品, 然后你要跟圣树说话, 有高阶位的神,低阶位的神, 祖先,其他等等。
This is not a world in which the separation between religion and science has occurred . 这是一个 宗教与科学还未分离的 世界。
separation:n.分离;分开;分割;隔离; occurred:v.发生;出现;存在于;出现在;(occur的过去分词和过去式)
Religion has not being separated from any other areas of life, and in particular , what's crucial to understand about this world is that it's a world in which the job that science does for us is done by what Rattray is going to call religion, because if they want an explanation of something, if they want to know why the crop just failed, if they want to know why it's raining or not raining, if they need rain, if they want to know why their grandfather has died, 宗教还没有 从生活的任何方面剥离出去, 尤其是, 理解这个世界的重点是, 在这个世界里, 科学爲我们做的事情 是由拉特雷所说的宗教完成的, 因为如果他们想要任何解释, 如果他们想知道爲什么庄稼谢了, 如果他们想知道爲什么下雨了, 或者他们想下雨却没有雨, 如果他们想知道爲什么 他们的祖父去世了,
in particular:尤其,特别; crucial:adj.重要的;决定性的;定局的;决断的;
they are going to appeal to the very same entities , the very same language, talk to the very same gods about that. 他们会向同一个地方求助, 用相同的语言, 跟相同的神灵诉说。
appeal:n.上诉;吸引力;申诉;魅力;v.上诉;呼吁;申诉;恳求; entities:n.实体;存在(entity的复数形式);字符实体;
This great separation, in other words, between religion and science hasn't happened. 这个伟大的分离,换句话说, 宗教与科学的分离还未发生。
Now, this would be a mere historical curiosity , except that in large parts of the world, this is still the truth. 也许这只是单纯的历史趣事, 不过事实是在世界很大一部分地方 还是这样的情况。
mere:adj.仅仅的;只不过的;n.小湖;池塘; historical:adj.历史的;史学的;基于史实的; curiosity:n.好奇,好奇心;珍品,古董,古玩;
I had the privilege of going to a wedding the other day in northern Namibia, 20 miles or so south of the Angolan border in a village of 200 people. 有天我很榮幸参加 在纳米比亚北部举行的一个婚礼, 位于安哥拉边界向南20英里 一个200人的村庄。
privilege:n.特权;优待;v.给与…特权;特免; the other day:不久前某一天;几天以前;
These were modern people. 这些都是现代人。
We had with us Oona Chaplin , who some of you may have heard of, and one of the people from this village came up to her, and said, "I've seen you in 'Game of Thrones .'" 和我们在一起的一个人是欧娜?卓别林, 你们有些人可能听过她的名字, 一个村民走向她, 说,“我在‘权力游戏’电视剧裏面见过你。”
Chaplin:n.卓别林(喜剧演员); Thrones:n.座天使(圣经故事中天使名);
So these were not people who were isolated from our world, but nevertheless , for them, the gods and the spirits are still very much there, and when we were on the bus going back and forth to the various parts of the [ceremony], they prayed not just in a generic way but for the safety of the journey , and they meant it, and when they said to me that my mother, the bridegroom's [grandmother], was with us, they didn't mean it figuratively . 所以这些人并不是与我们的世界隔离的人, 但是,对他们来说, 上帝和神灵占据了生活的大部分, 当我们坐上巴士 在（庆典的）各个场合来回时, 他们并不是笼统地祈祷, 而是祈求旅途平安, 他们都是真心的, 当他们和我说,我妈妈, 新郎的“祖母”, 也跟我们在一起的时候,他们并不是比喻。
isolated:adj.偏远的; v.隔离,孤立,脱离; nevertheless:adv.然而,不过;虽然如此;conj.然而,不过; back and forth:前后移动的,来回的,反复的; generic:adj.类的;一般的;属的;非商标的; journey:n.旅行;行程;vi.旅行; figuratively:adv.比喻地;象征性地;
They meant, even though she was a dead person, they meant that she was still around. 他们意思是,尽管她已不在人世, 她仍旧在他们周围。
So in large parts of the world today, that separation between science and religion hasn't occurred in large parts of the world today, and as I say, these are not -- 所以在这个世界的很多地方, 宗教与科学的分离 尚未发生, 就像我说的,这些人不是--
This guy used to work for Chase and at the World Bank . 这个人曾经在大通银行和世界银行工作,
World Bank:n.世界银行(向处于困境需要资助的成员国贷款的国际机构);
These are fellow citizens of the world with you, but they come from a place in which religion is occupying a very different role. 这些是跟你一样的人, 但是在他们的世界里, 宗教扮演着非常独特的角色。
occupying:v.占用;使用;居住;占领;占据;(occupy的现在分词)
So what I want you to think about next time somebody wants to make some vast generalization about religion is that maybe there isn't such a thing as a religion, such a thing as religion, and that therefore what they say cannot possibly be true. 所以我想告诉你们的是,下次有人 想对宗教做一个宽泛的概括的时候, 可能宗教根本不存在, 没有宗教这个东西, 所以他们所说的任何东西 都不可能是真的。
generalization:n.概括;普遍化;一般化;
(Applause) （掌声）