【CASK EFFECT】1006G阅读全方位锻炼--越障【Economist】 2-4

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【CASK EFFECT】1006G阅读全方位锻炼--越障【Economist】 2-4  

继草木也知愁【SCI】系列特推出【Economist】，旨在培养阅读的习惯。
阅读不是实力的较量，是习惯的比拼
“规则：0 u, r. g$ C/ d+ [4 f5 C* B, J" n/ v5 W* u. f
% K  N9 u8 C/ `6 A0 b
我每天贴出1000字左右的一篇文字
没有别的要求，只要大家坚持读完就可以如果你能坚持一个月，你会发现自己的阅读进化了 [注]
1
直接在电脑屏幕面前做，虽然GRE阅读是在纸上考，但是这个过程会遏制你做笔记，同时给你的阅读造成视觉障碍，也就是把难度训练和抗干扰训练同步结合，增加效率（初期会很累，但是既然大家想要成为高手，那么就别对自己太温柔）
2
所采用文章部分来自寄托天下版油发贴，在此谢谢所有的版油”



An evolutionary biologist on religion

Spirit level
Dec 17th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Why the human race has needed religion to survive

Alamy
The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why it Endures. By Nicholas Wade. Penguin Press; 310 pages; $25.95. Buy from Amazon.com

WHEREVER their investigations lead, all analysts of religion begin somewhere. And in the final lines of his densely but skillfully packed account of faith from the viewpoint of evolutionary biology, Nicholas Wade recalls the place where he first felt sanctity: Eton College chapel.

The “beauty of holiness” in a British private school is a far cry from the sort of religion that later came to interest him as a science journalist at Nature magazine and then the New York Times. To examine the roots of religion, he says, it is important to look at human beginnings. The customs of hunter-gatherer peoples who survived into modern times give an idea of religion’s first forms: the ecstasy of dusk-to-dawn tribal dances, for example.

Charles Darwin, whose idea of the sacred also came from an English private school, witnessed religion at its most primordial when he went to Australia in 1836. He found it horrifying: “nearly naked figures, viewed by the light of blazing fires, all moving in hideous harmony…”

Whatever Darwin’s personal sensibilities, Mr Wade is convinced that a Darwinian approach offers the key to understanding religion. In other words, he sides with those who think man’s propensity for religion has some adaptive function. According to this view, faith would not have persisted over thousands of generations if it had not helped the human race to survive. Among evolutionary biologists, this idea is contested有质疑的. Critics of religion, like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, suggest that faith is a useless (or worse) by-product of other human characteristics.

And that controversy leads to another one. Does Darwinian selection take place at the level only of individuals, or of groups as well? As Mr Wade makes clear, the notion of religion as an “adaptive” phenomenon makes better sense if one accepts the idea of group selection. Groups which practised religion effectively and enjoyed its benefits were likely to prevail over those which lacked these advantages.

Of course, the picture is muddied使污浊
by the vast changes that religion went through in the journey from tribal dancing to Anglican hymns. The advent of settled, agricultural societies, at least 10,000 years ago, led to a new division of labour, in which priestly castes僧侣的社会等级
tried to monopolise access to the divine, and the authorities sought to control sacred ecstasy.

Still, the modifications that religion has undergone should not, in Mr Wade’s view, distract from the study of faith’s basic functions. In what way, then, does religion enhance a group’s survival? Above all, by promoting moral rules and cementing cohesion, in a way that makes people ready to sacrifice themselves for the group and to deal ruthlessly with outsiders. These arguments are well made. Mr Wade has a clear mind and limpid prose style which guides the reader almost effortlessly through 200 years of intellectual history. Perhaps, though, he oversimplifies the link between morality, in the sense of obedience to rules, and group solidarity based on common participation in ecstatic rites.

All religion is concerned in varying degrees with metaphysical ideas, moral norms and mystical experience. But in the great religions, the moral and the mystical have often been in tension. The more a religion stresses ecstasy, the less it seems hidebound by rules—especially rules of public behaviour, as opposed to purely religious norms. And religious movements (from the “Deuteronomists” of ancient Israel to the English Puritans) that emphasise moral norms tend to eschew the ecstatic.

Max Weber, one of the fathers of religious sociology, contrasted the transcendental feelings enjoyed by Catholic mass-goers with the Protestant obsession with behaviour. In Imperial Russia, Peter the Great tried to pull the Russian Orthodox church from the former extreme to the latter: to curb its love of rite and mystery and make it more of a moral agency like the Lutheran churches of northern Europe. He failed. Russians liked things mystical, and they didn’t like being told what to do.

As well as giving an elegant summary of modern thinking about religion, Mr Wade also offers a brief, provocative history of monotheism. He endorses the radical view that the story of the Jews’ flight from Egypt is myth, rather than history. He sympathises with daring ideas about Islam’s beginnings: so daring that many of its proponents work under false names. In their view, Islam is more likely to have emerged from dissident Christian sects in the Levant than to have “burst out of Arabia”, as the Muslim version of sacred history teaches.

At times, the book stumbles. In describing the interplay between Hellenic and Hebrew culture at the dawning of Christianity, Mr Wade makes exaggerated claims. He says there is no basis for a mother-and-child cult in the religion of Israel. In fact there are many references in the Hebrew scriptures to the Messiah and his mother; the Dead Sea Scrolls have made this even clearer. And his micro-history of Christian theology is inaccurate in places.

These objections aside, this is a masterly book. It lays the basis for a rich dialogue between biology, social science and religious history. It also helps explain a quest for collective ecstasy that can take myriad forms. Perhaps his brief autobiographical reference to Eton should have noted the bonding effect not only of chapel, but also of songs like “Jolly Boating Weather”.

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grekokomo 发表于 2010-1-4 23:15

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1)Sanctity神圣 尊严 圣洁
2)Densely密集地 浓厚地
3)Far cry from有…天壤之别
The “beauty of holiness” in a British private school is a far cry from the sort of religion that later came to interest him as a science journalist at Nature magazine and then the New York Times.
4)Ecstasy 狂喜
5）Primordial adj. 原始的，自原始时代的，最初的  
Life's primordial reality is spirit.
6）Side with站在…一边
In other words, he sides with those who think man’s propensity for religion has some adaptive function.
7)contest竞争
Among evolutionary biologists, this idea is contested 这个想法受到挑战
8) muddy v. 弄脏，使 ... 混浊，使迷惑
Of course, the picture is muddied by the vast changes that religion went through in the journey from tribal dancing to Anglican hymns.
9）Hymn赞美诗 诗歌
10）Undergo the modification经历改变
Still, the modifications that religion has undergone should not, in Mr Wade’s view, distract from the study of faith’s basic functions.
11）Cement巩固
In what way, then, does religion enhance a group’s survival? Above all, by promoting moral rules and cementing cohesion, in a way that makes people ready to sacrifice themselves for the group and to deal ruthlessly with outsiders.
12）Limpid清晰的 清澈的
Mr Wade has a clear mind and limpid prose style which guides the reader almost effortlessly through 200 years of intellectual history.
13）In the sense of 从…意义上说
Perhaps, though, he oversimplifies the link between morality, in the sense of obedience to rules, and group solidarity based on common participation in ecstatic rites.
14）Metaphysical形而上学的
15）Hidebound墨守成规
Be hidebound by rules
16）Eschew避开，回避
And religious movements (from the “Deuteronomists” of ancient Israel to the English Puritans) that emphasise moral norms tend to eschew the ecstatic.
17）Protestant新教徒
18）Curb抑制
Curb the love of sth
19)Monotheism n. 一神论，一神教
20)表示赞同的三种说法 应该学习 不要再用agree啦！endorse the view/sympathise with the view/side with those who...
He endorses the radical view that the story of the Jews’ flight from Egypt is myth, rather than history.
He sympathises with daring ideas about Islam’s beginnings: so daring that many of its proponents work under false names.
In other words, he sides with those who think man’s propensity for religion has some adaptive function.
21)Dissident 有异议的 ,有不同意见的 (代替different)还可以有diverse代替different
In their view, Islam is more likely to have emerged from dissident Christian sects in the Levant than to have “burst out of Arabia”, as the Muslim version of sacred history teaches.
hold the dissident view...
22)Stumble vi.  vi. 绊倒，失策，踌躇，无意中发现
23)Interplay相互影响
24)It lays the basis for a rich dialogue between biology, social science and religious history. 奠定基础
25)Aside  adv. 在一边，另外，离开 可以表示让步关系
These objections aside, this is a masterly book.