 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/ B) k1 K; [' I, I/ m9 y
3 `% Z: J9 A9 T% u/ K
0 T5 e l% R4 T* v, U- Ihttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
2 \# [0 E7 G X1 s: q4 k
2 g8 x$ O0 \9 |+ ^. O* v" X22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer
$ b0 |# i6 H/ u
& g8 z$ ~+ L: X9 D4 Z0 GScience and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas6 [, c( M+ y# X8 h; H* i1 n
" G ?7 W& I: |* S& [1 S9 LA study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.% J# y4 E7 ]9 f2 Q3 O& P* H
* w8 y+ N3 o) Y |8 v2 B% B- t
The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
9 U& k) c; v, H
# ~8 {6 X k0 P8 E& bThe team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one., E* z5 E% r) X, A% v/ N( D7 T
z! P+ a( T8 D9 M! W ]" C
The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.
8 i1 S' r. M9 y0 V$ _0 M/ R* e6 v' z3 @
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.8 L2 L* N4 j1 J
2 {- h9 R. a: L7 M* R% JTheir 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.
) P8 [# n( w4 i. v2 B) u4 V, Q
1 q: u9 D! L8 A7 U! Y" J! n( gOne 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.; I0 a$ t' K% {& A; U
5 Y6 v8 P9 R; i3 UAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.1 o3 d3 T3 t% w( S' x
$ J3 H4 z* D" }$ a ]\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.
9 c8 _3 H9 n3 N1 P
4 i' s, ]3 t3 J\"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.
! o W1 t1 \* f: E, Y9 N+ ^4 u/ L8 e) l5 b }' _
\"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.\"
7 C( ?0 q$ N* u$ g: I
- }3 j+ m: q7 MDr 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%.\"
& o; I3 F+ H& p; ~! H2 K& `. U* N5 k; ^1 _0 {+ x7 k: V* s
The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
/ z1 ^8 j& G) F4 E! C+ J
1 U5 W% h7 G+ H" O9 g+ lThey 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.: R% V9 b1 M( h" `( T+ c
6 o0 u4 g% e1 xAnd in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
$ a* o# N. W8 h( y2 N' E' W* `8 L+ F! N# o( n! k: C
However, 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.
' h8 i7 `" @! `9 C6 o5 O# P% W
: m/ |. J w) L9 @6 x" U5 x\"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.
: j' t/ g9 l6 w8 O
: C8 `- E% G2 l- u6 b0 f& w. y: L2 ~1 zHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". 3 r+ V! t/ m% F5 J& X
4 _3 N4 O7 {' q, S: }3 }\"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.
% Q/ g" m- J! E& e9 i! d. C- F- G6 E& L3 c$ \, X4 b
\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|