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http://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
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; h G0 u( T# K6 w2 tScience 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.2 g* \5 @2 i% P: S% _
9 R J- [- e" zThe study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
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3 g* T f( _; Z) W0 lThe team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.7 @% F2 {8 F. l/ o# q5 W8 S
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The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.
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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.
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7 }! Y8 D. W0 M+ {) OTheir 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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2 t# L. q r7 U: w0 G( DOne 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. L9 y$ z7 t' C: ^( J0 S8 i; ^
3 c( p; a) v k& r2 TAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another., o* R: e% Z+ [7 o/ ^ h
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\"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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! [5 O, I# b O\"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.\"- j( Y! u4 q6 x5 h
' T) Y: }6 q! U2 K" m5 lDr 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%.\"4 E0 ?( G3 z- j4 K
0 Y5 g% k7 w: z3 |The 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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They 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. W j( U& E# Z( W
0 L1 Q1 U. R; I9 {; J5 KAnd in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
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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.+ J0 H- P, t0 Z: g/ W: ~& [, s
7 |$ _# x- {* s- l }- V3 m O$ z\"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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3 V c: a( X. h3 T$ r' n% m8 nHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". 8 F+ ~% G) ]6 Z" p& H
# H+ R6 g4 M: D9 \\"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 k3 s. j* K1 m
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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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