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澳洲, 奧地利, 加拿大, 捷克, 芬蘭, 愛爾蘭, 荷蘭, 新西蘭, 瑞士: j; \. D- J/ f' }9 Z
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" }/ t; D- |3 u! Vhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
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22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer% ~' t5 y0 H9 s! K6 d& b
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Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
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A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.; U A# F" F( `- j$ e6 G
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The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation." p% t1 d. N/ } C4 \
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The team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.; v: z% s- Y2 R+ V0 q' v$ }, h
O1 q% M' ^ s# wThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.8 O- K! n3 N4 y: } ?: C
/ x' \" [% n' X$ S# V0 e" uThe 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.$ B( @/ ^0 q! e" |
$ x4 O# d$ E1 I9 T" } @0 kTheir 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.
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* }8 U/ S& |5 G, X. N: U+ @" ?5 z1 EOne 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.4 T3 O. x9 P4 ? T
* S4 T2 x; X) P+ m8 r; K tAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.& V# F( K, v( U ^
' K& c3 H6 C4 |. M\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.
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\"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.
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\"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.\"
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; }1 Y& W* M! N9 ~' hDr 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%.\"/ A; C$ k. v" N* \2 o2 ^4 _
4 v M7 b @5 L' v' bThe team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
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! L3 b6 r$ y$ A$ i" M/ t1 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.# T7 X W. y) t. D* I/ |" @
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And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.& ?& F: w q; f+ U9 G+ K& c% z
( z; e" o9 z& l. d5 {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., A/ x8 B- M$ {! d
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\"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.
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However, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". ) X5 c w @: U* N) I
# N9 a; Q% G; r/ c' \) M5 @2 B\"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.
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\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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