Lesson28 Religion
A hundred years ago, life in Europe and the USA was very different. Then,nearly everyone went to a church or synagogue once a week. Now, many peoplenever go at all. Religion is still important though, especially to theAmericans.
In the States, over 60% of the population goes to a church or synagogue.
There are over 70 million Protestants, nearly 50 million Roman Catholics,and over 6 million Jews. Religion is an important part of American life.
Americans like their President to be a religious man. They spend a lot ofmoney on beautiful new churches, and many of them enjoy modern services withplenty of music and drama.
British people are less interested in religion than Americans.
About 16% go to church. Of these, 2.5 million are Protestants, and 1.5million are Roman Catholics. There are also about one million Muslims and400,000 Jews in Britain. Religion still plays a part in British life. Thereare beautiful old cathedrals and churches in every town and village, manypeople prefer to get married in a church and lots of people go to church atChristmas and Easter, the two main Christian festivals. For a long time,fewer and fewer British people have gone to church, but now things seem tobe changing. The churches are very slowly growing again.
synagogue 犹太教会堂
Protestant 新教徒
Catholic 天主教徒
Jew 犹太教徒
Muslim 穆斯林
Cathedral 大教堂
宗教
一百年前，欧洲人和美国人的生活有很大不同。那时几乎人人每周去一次教堂或犹太教会堂，而现在有许多人从不去教堂。但是宗教仍然很重要，尤其对美国人来说。
超过百分之六十的美国人去教堂或犹太教会堂。美国有约七千多万清教徒，近五千万罗马天主教徒，六百多万犹太教徒。宗教在美国人生活中占有重要地位。美国人希望他们的总统是一个信奉宗教的人。他们花很多钱兴建崭新漂亮的教堂，许多人喜欢有大量音乐和戏剧的现代宗教仪式。
英国人没有美国人那样对宗教感兴趣。信奉宗教的人大约占总人口的百分之十六，其中两百五十万是新教徒，一百五十万是罗马天主教徒。英国还有大约一百万穆斯林和四十万犹太教徒。宗教在英国人的生活中依然占有一席之地。每个城镇村庄都有漂亮的古老大教堂和普通教堂。人们大多选择在教堂结婚，在圣诞节和复活节这两个基督教的重要节日，很多人会到教堂做礼拜。很长一段时间以来，去教堂的英国人越来越少了。但情况现在看来有所改观，到教堂做礼拜的人在逐渐增多。 |