最近看了頗多阿蘭 德波頓 (Alain de Botton)的文集/作品。這本《寫給無神論者》，感覺是映像深刻的一本。先說一下作者，阿蘭 德波頓，看見網評的一個稱號是英倫才子，生于1969年，劍橋畢業。作品在英語/西班牙世界頗受歡迎，這兩年他的作品也慢慢被翻譯成簡體中文，以“阿蘭 德波頓 文集” 集結出版。比較有名的是這些 《身份的焦慮》，《旅行的藝術》，《寫給無神論者》，《哲學的慰藉》。

No offense，作者沒有想要“立”或“破”任何觀點。用樸實一點的語言來說，作者把‘宗教’里的思維方式，行為準則，審美理念，剝離開，用一種“世俗”(secular)的方式，引導無神論者去思考，辨析，以解決人在社會中所面對的巨大的焦慮、不安與痛苦。比如說書的第一章，聊得是community，作者闡述了宗教里的community，借以說明，一個氛圍輕松的，有著既定基本主旨 – 通常是，但不一定是，互相交流內心的困惑，不安，尋求或給予寬慰 – 按期舉行，人員不局限與朋友圈的一種形式，其實在世俗世界里（secular world）也是值得借鑒和非常有意義的。稍微批評一下，原文的標題是“community”，在中文里面被翻譯成為了“群體”，這個翻譯總是感覺有點怪怪的？所以還是強烈推薦看看原版的，作者的寫作真是優美，遣詞，用句中，確實能欣賞到英文之美。

“Our inner lives must be lent a structure and our best thoughts reinforced to counter the continuous pull of distraction and disintegration. Religions have been wise enough to establish elaborate calendars and schedules. How free secular society leaves us by contrast. Secular life is not, of course, unacquainted with calendars and schedules. We know them well in relation to work, and accept the virtues of reminders of lunch meetings, cash-flow projections and tax deadlines. But it expects that we will spontaneously find our way to the ideas that matter to us and gives us weekends off for consumption and recreation. It privileges discovery, presenting us with an incessant stream of new information – and therefore it prompts us to forget everything. We are enticed to go to the cinema to see a newly released film, which ends up moving us to an exquisite pitch of sensitivity, sorrow and excitement. We leave the theatre vowing to reconsider our entire existence in light of the values shown on screen, and to purge ourselves of our decadence and haste. And yet by the following evening, after a day of meetings and aggravations, our cinematic experience is well on its way towards obliteration. We honour the power of culture but rarely admit with what scandalous ease we forget its individual monuments.”