 鲜花( 0)  鸡蛋( 0)
|
澳洲, 奧地利, 加拿大, 捷克, 芬蘭, 愛爾蘭, 荷蘭, 新西蘭, 瑞士. B8 p: {" f5 T `1 Z" ]
& L( N/ \5 d5 J0 x
" s! s: b, L1 ~- ?9 O& |; {$ y
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
' _# p0 {2 T; D$ C
" \' `( `( {# C5 u6 n1 r; I0 N22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer
% Q& v* G1 I( ]- y6 X( @- y ) v( {' b% |: V6 k! C+ E6 V P5 o! N
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas+ }9 O; k& v) I' V
. g* {8 |$ k$ j2 D/ \
A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.
8 f( X" v# w: }& J: E; U+ |
g' n( q& T* q, v6 i# lThe study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.: w' u$ I& X; \$ }; G
+ G' M3 L2 O% _, o i
The team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one. }% s* w9 I- Z) z& }
0 \0 o: |$ E) @: x
The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.
6 X: \! a& a/ f8 _( C0 e/ S# a$ |& H8 T, y4 a- B2 d7 `
The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.
7 L& r# W1 p& Z" m2 V4 E. K3 ]( z( x& x) C7 h5 Z- _
Their means of analysing the data invokes what is known as nonlinear dynamics - a mathematical approach that has been used to explain a wide range of physical phenomena in which a number of factors play a part.
0 b1 G+ u% ?. u" L, I V% Z
/ E3 Z6 r3 Z0 |! \; xOne of the team, Daniel Abrams of Northwestern University, put forth a similar model in 2003 to put a numerical basis behind the decline of lesser-spoken world languages.* e: f/ D% L4 Y9 t0 j: A. C
( U/ {+ P1 ?! I% |
At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.2 P8 z7 V3 Z0 `4 V- c* \* I
0 D" Q2 u8 y* V( l\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.- `4 Z: L R0 l. R) ]
2 c3 y; S2 l0 A1 V; B
\"It posits that social groups that have more members are going to be more attractive to join, and it posits that social groups have a social status or utility.( g; i9 i& F, J
- a4 F; |3 Q9 W( x& F\"For example in languages, there can be greater utility or status in speaking Spanish instead of [the dying language] Quechuan in Peru, and similarly there\'s some kind of status or utility in being a member of a religion or not.\"1 P! G2 n% M/ k3 Q8 H
8 O2 K$ ~" r3 c1 |
Dr Wiener continued: \"In a large number of modern secular democracies, there\'s been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%.\"6 e* y* q5 N1 I1 Q
- R$ O. s0 d# Z$ R c# BThe team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
0 { z/ o2 c, x1 h
! e8 q1 \3 H0 D) NThey found, in a study published online, that those parameters were similar across all the countries studied, suggesting that similar behaviour drives the mathematics in all of them.0 [' m$ v$ |* U+ k5 G
2 N/ X; T6 E2 |
And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
( o' N! X# q5 @2 W3 l
4 b. n( s/ z9 g# OHowever, Dr Wiener told the conference that the team was working to update the model with a \"network structure\" more representative of the one at work in the world.( P; d4 B% D, u
: s/ P/ W& ]4 P' e1 k/ f: ~\"Obviously we don\'t really believe this is the network structure of a modern society, where each person is influenced equally by all the other people in society,\" he said.
1 ?9 @) h' P9 \& {
! r& I$ J$ v0 k/ e/ a1 ]2 lHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\".
: m+ g6 F1 h. |3 a+ J( F" W5 u& g/ W
\"It\'s interesting that a fairly simple model captures the data, and if those simple ideas are correct, it suggests where this might be going.7 I& _/ `9 v9 U2 W; J9 _; w
9 m. f% N, q# n5 ~
\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|