Religions of the world，作者Lewis M. Hopfe/Mark R. Woodward，400頁，借自廣州圖書館外文室。
伍教練自學的第18本英文專業教科書，透析了兩個月。這18本教科書的領域分別是：天文學、內科學、微生物學、性學、市場營銷學、普通心理學、股票投資學、二戰史學、臨床心理學、公共演講學、藝術學、性功能障礙治療學、人力資源管理學、組織行為學、數碼攝影學、新聞學、社會心理學、宗教學。伍教練只是其中某幾個專業的學生（指拿到學位）和專業人士（靠它來養家餬口），嚴格說來都稱不上專家，其他專業大多數都是出於興趣和需要進行透析，掌握最基本的入門知識。因此，我總會選擇主流的入門教科書，而非某個名家的一家之言。
了解宗教是比較純粹的興趣，因為伍教練不拿學位，不以謀生，本人更是一個固執於唯物的atheist，只是想看看世上幾十億人都在瞎搗鼓什麼。這本概述宗教之書的結構見目錄：
INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW
BASIC RELIGIONS
1 Characteristics of Basic Religions
2 Native American Religions
3 African Religions
RELIGIONS ORIGINATING IN INDIA
4 Hinduism
5 Jainism
6 Buddhism
7 Sikhism
RELIGIONS ORIGINATING IN CHINA AND JAPAN
8 Chinese Religions
9 Shinto
RELIGIONS ORIGINATING IN THE MIDDLE EAST
10 Zoroastrianism
11 Judaism
12 Christianity
13 Islam
14 Baha』i
專業教科書一貫不難，在這個溫和的詞彙環境中吸收一些宗教術語生詞是相當愜意的。
透析法的記單詞法則在avatar這個超級熱詞上體現得淋漓盡致。這個印度教術語全書大約出現了5次，摘錄如下：
94 頁
The chief feature of Vishnu is his concern for humanity, which he expresses by appearing on earth a number of times in various forms (avatars).
The tenth avatar of Vishnu will occur at the end of the age, when he will appear as Kalkin on a white horse.
99 頁
According to one story, Shankara did not die; he simply disappeared. Consequently, some Shivaites believe that the great scholar was actually an avatar of Shiva.
136頁
In the same way that Hinduism absorbed Buddhism by saying that Gautama was really and avatar of Vishnu, Buddhism absorbed many other religions by saying that their gods were really incarnations of the Buddha.
137頁
By the seventh century, it had absorbed many Buddhist features-simply by stating that Gautama was an avatar of Vishnu.
380頁
avatar. Incarnation of a deity. In Hinduism, the god Vishnu is believed to have taken human or other forms on several occasions.
對神道教切腹的血腥描寫對掌握seppuku這個生詞很有幫助：
Bowing once more, the speaker allowed his upper garments to slip down to his girdle, and remained naked to the waist. Carefully, according to custom, he tucked his sleeves under his knees to prevent himself from falling backwards; for a noble Japanese gentleman should die falling forwards. Deliberately, with a steady hand, he took the dirk that lay before him; he looked at it wistfully, almost affectionately; for a moment he seemed to collect his thoughts for the last time, and then stabbing himself deeply below the waist on the left-hand side, he drew the dirk slowly across to the right side, and, turning it in the wound, gave a slight cut upwards. During this sickeningly painful operation he never moved a muscle of his face. When he drew out the dirk, he leaned forward and stretched out his neck; an expression of pain for the first time crossed his face, but he uttered no sound. At that moment the kaishaku, who, still crouching by his side, had been keenly watching his every movement, sprang to his feet, poised his sword for a second in the air; there was a flash, a heavy, ugly thud, a crashing fall; with one blow the head had been severed from the body. A dead silence followed, broken only by the hideous noise of the blood throbbing out of the inert heap before us, which but a moment before had been a brave and chivalrous man. It was horrible.
伍教練一向認為，讀完一本教科書能了解、理解一些新知就很有收穫了，哪怕這些知識是零碎的，而整體上得到什麼認識說不出來。讀完宗教學，我對下面這些內容比較有印象：
讀到Chinese religions時特別感興趣，因為這是我們的國產。相比較而言，中國日本的宗教都是比較低級的，道教和儒教只能勉強作為宗教來討論，儘管國人的信教熱情不低，但都是臨急抱佛腳，認真按規矩修行的不多，跟印度和中東的宗教沒法比。談到道教，原來祖師爺老子在西方人的理解中是Old Boy，這個甚妙的Old Boy後來出國後人間蒸發了。談到儒教，才讓我明白孔子原來離過婚：He married and fathered one son, but the marriage ended in divorce.孔子的政績不錯——夜不閉戶，路不拾遺英文版：During his leadership, the state was so well governed that the crime rate dropped to almost nothing. People stopped locking their doors and a wallet that was dropped on the street was left untouched for days.
談到在中國興旺發達的佛教，國人庸俗的宗教觀還汙染了佛在西方人心中的形象：Most Westerners tend to think of Buddha as a fat, jolly person because they have been influenced by Chinese statuary that depicts plump figures as 「Buddhas.」 These images, however, are not attempts to depict the historical Buddha. The plump, laughing figures found in Chinese restaurants and curio shops are actually not Buddhas at all, but rather kitchen gods.
佛祖名叫Gautama（音譯真有些搞了）是怎麼死的呢？網上淨是佛教徒神化的傳說，俱不足信。根據歷史材料考證，原來佛祖活到80多歲時吃了變質豬油咖喱，食物中毒而亡：The Buddha reportedly died at the age of eighty after eating spoiled pork curry.
當然，最大的收穫是了解了世界上幾大宗教幫派。WIKI上有個信徒人數排行榜，前兩名Christianity和Islam都超過了10億之眾，而他們信奉的上帝其實是同一個神。總算清楚了他們的來龍去脈了，對以後了解國際政治、中東衝突極有啟示，也為我下一本準備透析的HOLOCAUST也準備了理論基礎。
伍教練是學過精神醫學和心理學的，還在精神病院實習過幾個月，讀了宗教書中對創教祖師爺的描述，發現他們得到神諭的狀態明顯是處於某種精神狀態，恍恍惚惚一番之後就來戲，與其說是神的啟示，還不如說是內心潛意識的反應，甚至是神志不清腦波隨機而動之後被主觀意識賦予實際意義，類似解夢。難怪某某經之類都像論語，只有片言隻語，而不是深嚴的體系，而後來發展壯大了，聰明而清醒的教士對其進行了有機整理，就變成了貌似很有邏輯的樣子。
如果真有上帝的話，那麼整個宇宙世界就是一個程序，上帝就是外部的程式設計師。我們在這個MATRIX之中，按照程序的唯物設定是不可能得到神諭的，我們自覺意識到外部的上帝也是程序運行的結果。目前還沒覺得有必要引入超自然的東西，例如上帝編了彩蛋或BUG或留下通關秘技之類，因為自然的理論解釋已經足夠好，用奧卡姆剃刀一剃，人就成無神論者了。相信此書兩位作者就是atheists。