TED演讲:无神论2.0(3)

 　　And I'd like to run through a few of these today.  现在我想具体地解释一下

　　I'd like to kick off by looking at education.  先从教育说起

　　Now education is a field the secular¹ world really believes in. 非宗教的人们十分相信学习、教育的力量

　　When we think about how we're going to make the world a better place,  我们觉得教育使世界进步

　　we think education; that's where we put a lot of money.  我们还在教育上花了很多钱

　　Education is going to give us, not only commercial skills, industrial skills,  教育不仅仅给我们很多本领，例如商业以及工业技术，

　　it's also going to make us better people.  还让我们变成更加优秀的人

　　You know the kind of thing a commencement address is, and graduation ceremonies,  像是那些开学典礼或者毕业典礼的演讲

　　those lyrical claims that education, the process of education -- particularly higher education --  那些话语都告诉我们教育的过程，特别是高等教育

　　will make us into nobler and better human beings.  会使我们变成高尚优秀的人才

　　That's a lovely idea. Interesting where it came from. 那是个很好的想法。这想法的起源也很有意思

　　In the early 19th century,  在十九世纪初的西欧

　　church attendance in Western Europe started sliding down very, very sharply, and people panicked. 去教堂的人急速减少，大家也变得紧张起来

　　They asked themselves the following question.  他们问自己

　　They said, where are people going to find the morality, where are they going to find guidance, 人们要去哪里寻找好品德，去哪里寻找指引

　　and where are they going to find sources of consolation²?  又去哪里去寻找慰藉呢

　　And influential³ voices came up with one answer. They said culture. 那些有影响力的人回答道：文化

　　It's to culture that we should look for guidance, for consolation, for morality. 我们要在我们的文明中寻找指引，慰藉，和好品德

　　Let's look to the plays of Shakespeare, the dialogues of Plato, the novels of Jane Austen. 去看莎士比亚的剧本，柏拉图的对话，简·奥斯汀的小说

　　In there, we'll find a lot of the truths that we might previously⁴ have found in the Gospel of Saint John. 我们可以找到很多真理，那些真理很可能也在《约翰福音》中出现过

　　Now I think that's a very beautiful idea and a very true idea.  我觉得这想法是非常美妙真实的

　　They wanted to replace scripture⁵ with culture.  他们想用文化积淀来代替圣典

　　And that's a very plausible⁶ idea.  这也是非常有道理的

　　It's also an idea that we have forgotten.  但这也是一个我们已经忘却了的想法

1 secular   

n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的

参考例句：

• We live in an increasingly secular society.我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。
• Britain is a plural society in which the secular predominates.英国是个世俗主导的多元社会。

2 consolation   

n.安慰，慰问

参考例句：

• The children were a great consolation to me at that time.那时孩子们成了我的莫大安慰。
• This news was of little consolation to us.这个消息对我们来说没有什么安慰。

3 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

4 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

5 scripture   

n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段

参考例句：

• The scripture states that God did not want us to be alone.圣经指出上帝并不是想让我们独身一人生活。
• They invoked Hindu scripture to justify their position.他们援引印度教的经文为他们的立场辩护。

6 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。