By Alain de Botton, the founder of The school of Life
(www.theschooloflife.com)
Preface (前言)
To distinguish the most common way to split the
world, Religious or the Atheist, means disagree anything related to religion,
with his new book, Alan de Botton talks to us how and what aspects of religion should atheists
(respectfully) adopt & suggests a
"religion for atheists", called Atheism 2.0 that incorporates religious forms and traditions to those modern, secular individuals to
pursue life morality, guidance and consolation.
(有別於傳統的無神論者, 說宗教是錯的而且還是荒謬的, 完全推翻任何跟宗教有關的教義, 教儀, 教團.., 透過Alain見解精闢,文采十足的書,無神論2.0, 及他一手創立 [新人生學堂] 的推廣, Alain教現代人如何實現自我, 建議那些不信教的人如何去蕪存菁, 學習宗教裡好的傳統格律來獲得人生指引, 道德觀, 並從中得到慰藉)
Notes Taken
from the Talk (http://alaindebotton.com/tv-audio/)
For those secular
people, often they think "I can't believe in the doctrines or I don't
think these doctrines are right. But, they may love
Christmas carols, like looking at old churches, like turning the page of the
Old Testament………, people are attracted to the ritualistic, moralistic side of
religion, but can't bear the doctrine. So that's a sort of
tough choice and Alain suggests the alternative of being
very respectful and still impious to steal from religions of picking and
mixing, taking out the best sides of religion. Via a thorough study/comparison with religion,
Alan gives us all sorts of insights into areas of life that
are not going too well where we can learn from religion:
(對某些不信教的人而言, 他們會想「我不認同那些教條」或「我不認為這些教條是對的」, “可是”「我喜歡聖誕歌」,「我欣賞古老的教堂」,「我很喜歡翻閱舊約聖經」.. 諸如此類的言論, 總之有些人會被宗教的某部份吸引，比如是儀式 宗教中的倫理，或是裡面普世共享的東西 但受不了宗教裡的教條, 因此陷入困難的選擇 ! 在這裡, Alain提出另一種思維, 另一個可能性, 我們可以在非常尊重，但並不崇拜宗教的前提下 從中偷師, 萃取並融和宗教裡美好的事物,去蕪存菁而加以發揮. Alain透過徹底地研究宗教的內容, 來與 ”去宗教化” 的現今主流社會做得並不高明的地方做比較, 具體點出「宗教裡面有甚麼值得借鏡的？」來讓你我人生獲得不同的啟發)
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Education: we all believe &
invest in education to make the world a better place.
Back to 19th century, church attendance in Western Europe started sliding down
sharply, and people panicked. They asked where are people going to find the morality, guidance, and sources of
consolation? One common answer came
up, Using CULTURE to replace scripture, the plays of Shakespeare, the dialogues of Plato, the novels of Jane Austen…. People can find truths as we found in the previous
Gospel of Saint John. This is a very plausible idea, but the idea we have forgotten nowadays !
(首先，我們來談談教育, 今時今日我們對教育抱有莫大信心並投入龐大資金, 因為我們相信教育能使世界變得更好)
回朔到十九世紀初, 在西歐信教上教會的人迅速的流失下滑, 人們開始不安! 大家想知道, 從此以後人們該從何學習倫理, 從何得到指引, 有從何得到慰藉？ [文化]是當時大家得到的答案, 可以文化取代宗教, 在莎士比亞的歌劇 柏拉圖《對話錄》和珍奧斯汀的小說裡 我們可以找到真理, 相同的東西我們曾在約翰福音裡找到!
從文化中學習真理，Alain認為是切實可行, 但他認為當代世人早已把這想法遠遠拋諸腦後了…)
Ø
Religions start
differently with the modern, secular world:
(跟世俗社會比起來, 宗教有完全不同的思維及作法)
1. All major religions call
us “children” and they believe that we are in severe need of assistance for
guidance & didactic learning to deliver sermons, advising people what is
their duties and how they could live. (所有主流宗教總是稱教徒為「孩子」, 像小孩一樣急切需要扶一把, 需要幫助, 指引, 用佈道會的方式指導人們如果過活, 向人宣導彼此的責任義務..)
2. Religions are cultures
of repetitions, they circle the great truths again and again in the sermons
and asked to knees down and say prays 10-20 times/a day
(宗教事實上是重複的文化 重要的真理，宗教會循著佈道會模式一而再，再而三地的傳頌, 同時要求信徒做的「跪下，每日重複十到二十遍」以牢記在心)
3. Religions also give us solid
calendar as structured time to set up rituals around important feelings.
(e.g. end March to think about St. Jerome to remember his good deeds!) (除了重複，宗教都有曆法, 信眾們需要為此安排時間來為不同的教義設立各項儀式作紀念 (如三月最後一天會記起聖傑洛米, 記起他謙卑,善良的善行)
4.
Other thing that
religions are really aware of is “Speak Well”, oratory is absolutely key
to religions, what you are saying needs to be backed up by a really convincing,
inspiring way of saying it. If we ever listen to the well-known priest doing
preaching, they talk well. After every convincing point, people will go, "Amen, amen, amen." At the end, they'll all
stand up, and they'll go, "Thank you Jesus, thank you Christ, thank you
Savior." If we were doing it like they do it, I would tell you that "Culture
should replace scripture." And you would go,
"Amen, amen, amen." And at the end of my talk, you would all stand up and you would go,
"Thank you Plato, thank you Shakespeare, thank you Jane Austen." And we'd know that we
had a real rhythm going. (宗教還察覺意到大家該”說好話” 演講絕對是宗教活動的核心, 不管是教義教條, 宗教說甚麼總是讓人信服不已! 如果你聽過那些聞名遐邇的牧師如何演講, 天啊，說得真好! 每每說到動人處，會眾高呼「阿門，阿門，阿門」 在演說完畢時，全體起立 齊聲大喊「感謝耶穌，感謝基督，感謝救主」 現在如果我們比照辦理, 我說的內容是「文化應該取代宗教」 你們該高呼「阿門，阿門，阿門」 當我演說結束後，你們都會起立回應「感謝柏拉圖，感謝莎翁，感謝珍．奧斯汀」, 我們都有默契，知道一來一回的節奏就好了)
5. Regions know how to use not
only brains and also Body ! When they teach us a lesson, they do it via the
body, for example, the Jewish forgiveness, they don’t just deliver sermons,
they ask for a bath on a regular ritual. A physical action backs up a
philosophical idea and religions are fascinating in the way they try and
combine the two. (宗教還知道人們不只有理性的腦袋, 還有肉身! 宗教不只是書本或口述的教義, 他們會讓教徒透過身體學習. 例如猶太人注重的寬恕, 他們除了書本口述強調寬恕, 同時要求信徒去淨身池把自己沈沒在水中, 用身體行動實踐理念.，宗教引人入勝，因為它能把所想與我所作二者合而為
Today education at our top university (e.g. Harvard or …) , they see us as rational adults. In the class, they offer information, data, and consider you should be able to remember them by yourself. We easily associate repetition with boredom, not so adopting a religious mindset ! Now most of us, the so-called “modern liberal individualist” we've given up the idea of sermons, but inclined to various kind of lectures. What is different of these two? Sermons is about to change your life and lectures to provide you a bit of information. (當今的高等教育, 頂尖大學 (如哈佛..)視我們為理智的成年人. 在教室裡, 教育被認為只需要提供資訊, 數據而成人如你我應該知道如何追尋人生知識而牢記在心, 毋須幫忙, 理性的成年人沒這逼切需要! 自許為「獨立自主個體」的我們容易把「重複」和「沈悶」聯想在一起, 我們不容易調整心態來接受佈道傳教式的重複說教方式, 而教傾向演講方式的傳播思想. 佈道會和現世的講課 有何分別？ 佈道會嘗試改變你的生命而講課向你提供更多資訊. Alain 認為我們應該回到佈道會這有價值的傳統因為我們的確需要指引 道德觀，和慰藉!)
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Let’s take a look of A-R-T where we value it very high and
important nowadays
(讓我們來看看藝術, 在無神的世界裡我們對他評價很高也很重要)
Ø Often we hear it said that museums are our new cathedrals, or our new churches. Alain thinks the potential is there, but we've let ourselves down because we're not properly
studying how religions handle Art. He considered the two really bad ideas the modern world to view ART: The 1st idea
is that art should be for art's sake
and the 2nd thing we believe is that art shouldn't explain itself! (有這麼一個講法說美術館是新式教堂, Alain認為美術館的確有此潛力但我們沒把它發揮出來, 原因在於我們沒有好好研究宗教如何看待應用藝術, 他認為現代人有兩個很差勁的想法, 讓藝術無法好好發揮 1. 藝術純為藝術(藝術應該高深莫測, 毋須回應世界的問題), 2.藝術不應該不證自明(不讓人知道他想表達甚麼)
Ø
Religions have a clear
attitude toward Art: (宗教對藝術有十分明確的態度觀念)
u Art is about two things in all the major faiths. Firstly, it's trying to
remind you of what there is to love. And secondly, it's trying to remind you of what there is to fear
and to hate and that's what art is. When we walk around a church, or a cathedral, through our eyes, our
senses, truths have come to you through your mind. (在宗教的觀念裡，藝術有兩樣功能. 首先它要提醒你世上有何該愛, 其二提醒你世上有何該懼該惡, 藝術就是如此了. 在我們逛教會或大教堂時, 藝術讓人以視覺接觸信仰, 透過雙眼吸收平時學習的教義真理.)
u Essentially it's propaganda. Propaganda is a manner of being didactic in
honor of something. And if that thing is good, there's no problem with it at all. (本質上這是一種宣傳, 在宗教的角度, 這只是一種宣揚理念有教化作用的手法 如果理念是好的，這手法本身沒有問題)
u All works of art are talking to us about things. Art should pick up the duty that it used to
have and that we've neglected because of certain mis-founded ideas. Art should be one of the
tools by which we improve our society. (藝術品觀賞同時, 應該讓我們對該主題有所理解,藝術應重新負起那個曾一度被誤導而被摒棄的責任, 他應該是一個 改善社會的工具, 如此我們將會獲益良多)
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Some other things we can
learn from religion (其他我們可從宗教取經的點)
Ø
The people in the modern
world tend to be isolated individuals (e.g. poets, philosophers,
photographers…etc) who tend to be on their own as single group (在無神論的現世裡, 人們通常是孤獨的個體, (如詩人, 哲人或攝影師…)他們傾向獨立行動, 獨立於彼此的小型工作坊)
Ø Religions are organized as massive machines. They're collaborative,
branded, multinational, highly disciplined and most of all they have a clear identify so they don’t
get lost in the busy world, and the institutional way they are
doing are well recognized (相比之下，宗教像龐大的機器架構, 他們同心合力，師出有名，跨越國界並有高度的組織紀律, 更重要的是它有明確的定位, 不會在繁雜的世界迷失, 宗教如何有效的透過組織來宣揚教義是大家有目共睹值得效法的)
To conclude, regardless what field we are in, there is something to learn from the example of
religion. (總結來說, 不論你是各行各業, 總能從宗教中得到啟發借鏡)
Ø
We may not agree with
religion, but at the end of the day, religions are so subtle,
so complicated, so intelligent in many ways that they're not fit to
be abandoned to the religious alone and they 're for all of us.
(即使你不認同宗教, 可是宗教的內容確是很精妙複雜而且相當有智慧的, 我們不應全盤否定, 人人皆可從中受益)
