The Law of Religion

词汇用语

It’s pointless to ask this power for victory in war, for health or for rain, because from its all-encompassing vantage point, it makes no diʃerence whether a particular kingdom wins or loses, whether a particular city prospers or withers, whether a particular person recuperates or dies. The Greeks did not waste any sacrifices on Fate, and Hindus built no temples to Atman

1. N-COUNT A vantage point is a place from which you can see a lot of things. (便于观察的) 有利位置

例： From a concealed vantage point, he saw a car arrive. 从一个隐蔽的有利位置，他看到一辆车到了。

2. N-COUNTIf you view a situation from a particular vantage point, you have a clear understanding of it because of the particular period of time you are in. (某一时期的) 观点

例：From today's vantage point, the 1987 crash seems just a blip in the upward progress of the market. 从今天的观点来看，1987年的暴跌似乎只是市场上扬进程中一次短暂的下挫。

例：From my vantage point, Sal Khan lit the match igniting the current blaze of innovation.

例：Every big city has a perfect vantage pointfrom which to appreciate its immensity.

例：Taken from another vantage point, our new findings tell a different, more cohesive story.

In the Aztec Empire, subject peoples were obliged to build temples for Huitzilopochtli, but these temples were built alongside those of local gods, rather than in their stead. 代替

例：Rockefeller's brother, William A. Rockefeller, Mr. Malkin began planting new saplings in their stead.

PHRASEIf you say that something will stand someone in good stead, you mean that it will be very useful to them in the future. 对某人的将来很有用

例：These two games here will stand them in good stead for the future. 这里的两场比赛对他们的将来很有用。

例：However, the squad that are left behind have a year's experience in the SPL under their belt, which should stand them in good stead.

例：It might be tough times but it will stand them in good stead as they look forward in their careers.

The religious wars between Catholics and Protestants that swept Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are particularly notorious. All those involved accepted Christ’s divinity and His gospel of compassion and love. However, they disagreed about the nature of this love. Protestants believed that the divine love is so great that God was incarnated in flesh and allowed Himself to be tortured and crucified, thereby redeeming the original sin and opening the gates of heaven to all those who professed faith in Him. Catholics maintained that faith, while essential, was not enough. To enter heaven, believers had to participate in church rituals and do good deeds. Protestants refused to accept this, arguing that this quid pro quo belittles God’s greatness and love.

V-TIf you profess a feeling, opinion, or belief, you express it. 表示 (某感情、观点、信仰等)[正式]

例：He professed to be content with the arrangement. 他表示对该安排满意。

例：Miller professed himself dissatisfied with Broadway theatre. 米勒表示他对百老汇剧院不满。

V-TIf you professto do or have something, you claim that you do it or have it, often when you do not. (常不真实地) 声称[正式]

例：She professed to hate her nickname. 她声称讨厌她的绰号。

例：Why do organizations profess that they care? 为什么一些组织声称他们关心呢？

N-COUNT A quid pro quo is a gift or advantage that is given to someone in return for something that they have done. 补偿 [正式]

例：They share a great deal of information on a quid pro quo basis. 他们在互利的基础上进行大量的信息共享。

例：These leaders are tacit supporters of the idea of a"quid pro quo" for reforming governments.

例：However, a Justice Department official said the indictment does not allege any quid pro quo.

例：Don't expect a smoking pen in the form of a blatant quid pro quo.

When the pope in Rome heard the news from France, he was so overcome by joy that he organised festive prayers to celebrate the occasion and commissioned Giorgio Vasari to decorate one of the Vatican’s rooms with a fresco of the massacre (the room is currently off-limits to visitors).

ADJ If a place is off limits to someone, they are not allowed to go there. 禁止入内的

例：Certain areas have been declared off limits to servicemen. 已经宣布一些地区军人不得出入。

2. ADJ If you say that an activity or a substance is off limits for someone, you mean that they are not allowed to do it or have it. 禁止使用或拥有的[v-link ADJ]

例：Fraternizing with the customers is off-limits. 禁止与顾客过从甚密。

Thus were born monotheist religions, whose followers beseech the supreme power of the universe to help them recover from illness, win the lottery and gain victory in war.

V-TIf you beseech someone to do something, you ask them very eagerly and anxiously. 恳求; 央求[文学性]

例：She beseeched him to cut out his drinking and his smoking. 她央求他戒酒戒烟。

例：That prompted Mr. Montebourg in January to beseech Mr. Taylor to return to the table.

例：And I beseech all of you, who cover the work of the United Nations, to give the development agenda in 2004 the prominence it deserves.

例：The renewed strength of the Taliban in Afghanistan has led Afghan President Hamid Karzai to beseech the Taliban to conduct negotiations with him and to join his government.

That ‘suffering arises from craving’ is always and everywhere true, just as in modern physics E always equals mc^2. Buddhists are people who believe in this law and make it the fulcrum of all their activities.

N-SING If you say that someone or something is the fulcrum of an activity or situation, you mean that they have a very important effect on what happens. 支柱 [正式] [oft N 'of' n]

例：The decision is the strategic fulcrum of the Budget. 该决定是预算中的战略支点。

例：In the future I reckon China will be the fulcrum for natural resource shares.

例：Gerrard was at the fulcrum of the home side's overwhelming dominance, with Torres the chief outlet.

例：When Russia crushed the Chechen rebellion, the fulcrum of Islamist rebellion moved to Dagestan.

中英积累

吃惊地张大嘴 listened with dropping jaws

步兵 foot soldiers

涅槃重生 attain Nirvana

选段翻译

Today religion is often considered a source of discrimination, disagreement and disunion. Yet, in fact, religion has been the third great unifier of humankind, alongside money and empires. Religion can be defined as a system of human norms and values that is founded on a belief in a superhuman order. This involves two distinct criteria:

今天，人们常常认为宗教是歧视、分歧和分裂的源头。但事实上，宗教是除了金钱和帝国以外第三股让人类统一的力量。我们可以说宗教是某种“基于超人类秩序信仰的人类规则和价值体系”。这说明我们在判别宗教时，必须同时考虑两个标准。

1. Religions hold that there is a superhuman order, which is not the product of human whims or agreements.

1. 宗教认为世界上存在着某种超人类的秩序，这一秩序不是人类奇想或协议的产物。

2. Based on this superhuman order, religion establishes norms and values that it considers binding.

2. 宗教会在这种超人秩序的基础上，发展出一系列它认为有约束力的规则价值体系。

Despite their ability to legitimise widespread social and political orders, not all religions have actuated this potential. In order to unite under its aegis a large expanse of territory inhabited by disparate groups of human beings, a religion must possess two further qualities. First, it must espouse a universal superhuman order that is true always and everywhere. Second, it must insist on spreading this belief to everyone. In other words, it must be universal and missionary.Their emergence was one of the most important revolutions in history, and made a vital contribution to the uniɹcation of humankind, much like the emergence of universal empires and universal money.

尽管宗教能够让被广泛使用的社会和政治秩序合法化，但不是所有宗教都实现了这一职能。为了让整个领土内传统各异的人类族群都统一起来，宗教还应有另外两个特质。首先，它所支持的超人类秩序应该是普世的，适用于任何时期和地区。普世皆同，不论时空，永恒为真。第二，它还必须坚定地将这一信仰传播给大众。换句话说，宗教必须同时具有普世性和传播性。宗教的出现是历史上最为重要的变革之一，宗教为人类统一做出的重要贡献与帝国和金钱不相伯仲。

常识

Professional football is not a religion, because despite its many laws, rites and often bizarre rituals, everyone knows that human beings invented football themselves, and FIFA may at any moment enlarge the size of the goal or cancel the offside rule.

越位(Offside)是始创于1874年的《足球比赛规则》。它对进攻方向前传球时接球运动员允许站到的位置作出严格限制，即：在进攻方传球球员起脚的瞬间，接球球员比倒数第二名防守球员距离球门更近，同时比球距离球门更近，并试图借此位置进球或干扰比赛，就会被判罚越位。另外需要注意的是，角球和界外球并不算越位。（百度百科）

推荐看一看知乎更详细的解释（很搞笑）

Indeed, monotheist theology tends to deny the existence of all gods except the supreme God, and to pour hellfire and brimstone over anyone who dares worship them.

Fire and brimstone (or, alternatively, brimstone and fire, translated from the Hebrew גפרית ואש) is an idiomatic expression of signs of God's wrath in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament. In the Bible, they often appear in reference to the fate of the unfaithful. "Brimstone", the archaic name for sulfur, evokes the acrid odor of volcanic activity. The term is also used, sometimes pejoratively, to describe a style of Christian preaching that uses vivid descriptions of judgment and eternal damnation to encourage repentance.(Wikipedia)

Then follows a quotation from Mein Kampf: ‘The person who attempts to ɹght the iron logic of nature thereby ɹghts the principles he must thank for his life as a human being. To fight against nature is to bring about one’s own destruction.’

Mein Kampf (My Struggle) is a 1925 autobiographical book by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work outlines Hitler's political ideology and future plans for Germany. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926. The book was edited by Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess.

Hitler began the book while imprisoned for what he considered to be "political crimes" following his failed Putsch in Munich慕尼黑政变（啤酒馆政变：1923年11月，希特勒和鲁登道夫等人在慕尼黑发动的法西斯未遂政变。1923年，巴伐利亚邦长官卡尔 、驻巴伐利亚德国国防军司令洛索和邦警察局长赛塞尔为首的分离主义者企图维护君主制度，对抗共和国政府。他们同希特勒及其他民族主义团体联系甚密。希特勒试图利用魏玛共和国的危机发动政变，建立民族主义的独裁统治，最终政变失败，希特勒等数位纳粹党领袖遭逮捕。） in November 1923. Although Hitler received many visitors initially, he soon devoted himself entirely to the book. As he continued, Hitler realized that it would have to be a two-volume work, with the first volume scheduled for release in early 1925. The governor of Landsberg noted at the time that "he [Hitler] hopes the book will run into many editions, thus enabling him to fulfill his financial obligations and to defray the expenses incurred at the time of his trial." In 2016, following the expiry of the copyright held by the Bavarian state government, Mein Kampf was republished in Germany for the first time since 1945. (Wikipedia and Baidu Baike)