評論
打印
If you went to a top university -- let's say you went to Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge --
如果你去頂尖學府，像是哈佛，牛津，或者劍橋
and you said, "I've come here because I'm in search of morality, guidance and consolation;
然后你對他們說，"我想找到指引，慰藉，和道德"
I want to know how to live," they would show you the way to the insane asylum.
"我還想知道怎么好好生活"，那些大學會讓你去神經病醫院
This is simply not what our grandest and best institutes of higher learning are in the business of.
品德，慰藉，指引根本不是那些大學所管轄的
Why? They don't think we need it.
為什么呢，因為他們覺得我們不需要那些
They don't think we are in an urgent need of assistance.
他們覺得我們不需要援助
They see us as adults, rational adults.
他們覺得我們是有邏輯講道理的大人
What we need is information.
他們覺得我們只需要信息
We need data, we don't need help.
只需要資料，根本不需要幫助
Now religions start from a very different place indeed.
而宗教就完全不一樣了
All religions, all major religions, at various points call us children.
所有主流的宗教都把教徒看成是個孩子
And like children, they believe that we are in severe need of assistance.
就像孩子一樣，宗教相信我們十分急切地需要他們的援助
We're only just holding it together.
我們已經在了崩潰的邊緣
Perhaps this is just me, maybe you.
可能只有我是這樣，或許你也是這樣
But anyway, we're only just holding it together.
但不管怎樣，我們都在邊緣線上
And we need help. Of course, we need help.
而且我們無疑需要幫助
And so we need guidance and we need didactic learning.
所以我們需要指引，需要言教
You know, in the 18th century in the U.K.,
在十八世紀的英國
the greatest preacher, greatest religious preacher, was a man called John Wesley,
有個最偉大的傳教士叫做約翰·韋斯利
who went up and down this country delivering sermons, advising people how they could live.
他在全英國到處傳教，建議人們怎樣好好生活
He delivered sermons on the duties of parents to their children and children to their parents,
他傳道說教，告訴父母如何對待小孩，告訴孩子如何對待父母
the duties of the rich to the poor and the poor to the rich.
也告訴富人窮人如何相互對待
He was trying to tell people how they should live through the medium of sermons,
他用說教的方式去告訴大家如何去生活
the classic medium of delivery of religions.
這是說教最傳統的方式
Now we've given up with the idea of sermons.
現在我們摒棄了說教的方式
If you said to a modern liberal individualist,
如果你對一個現代自由的個人主義者說
"Hey, how about a sermon?" they'd go, "No, no. I don't need one of those.
"嘿，去布道怎么樣"，他們會說 "我才不要呢"
I'm an independent, individual person."
"我是個獨立自主的個體"
What's the difference between a sermon and our modern, secular mode of delivery, the lecture?
但是宗教里的布道和平時現代的講課演講到底有什么區別呢
