 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
' W. x1 J1 d8 W7 L
* ~! g" Y6 Q& D/ H: a A' }* t9 Y' Q) E. m6 w( k! S
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
[* M& G0 ~2 s' Z6 K6 B4 s k1 Y5 R7 ~. r8 E# _/ s! Q
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
- V- K3 z; A8 L# q7 C& l$ d8 f 1 a5 X, n0 C1 t1 M/ T+ d& ]0 G: M
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas8 S2 T% H. |4 C8 t: v& a, W5 O
0 A6 W- M9 M3 ]: }
A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.# |: X- v. h, Y3 w+ P; ?. i: Y
5 e2 f. Z, ], Q- |
The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
9 e$ B$ f9 l2 x/ g+ e1 C2 J0 n. h; G$ |! J2 B
The team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one." I7 x) s8 Z+ k$ j
" M0 f1 p; H# k3 ? P" R7 D% j; m
The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.' t' J# {3 t: B, `9 `$ a
1 @; L* H ~' g
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." |' ]4 a/ C. q! z
5 |: t M/ Y3 t4 z+ h$ }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.
1 }8 k+ X/ G1 t5 ^, @
& @/ X0 J( i @' U; A- V+ j8 WOne 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.
! Z; S: p% w$ N( d4 V' z. q- b* P) A' O; k M9 J4 r9 o. U- H
At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.
0 q; q9 M% S7 D
. R* W5 z$ N0 @\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.
$ D" V. `) r( Z% _0 P: G ~* k' s
\"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.
5 x/ K& O, X& g1 A4 H5 q2 K) N4 M8 e! Y
\"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.\"8 I. V3 p" L8 Z9 `+ ^
9 d9 B- l. X7 w9 s' h* A3 S. uDr 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%.\"
$ E. P5 ?" ?( q. o' z L6 j @ w( q& T- i
The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
) B7 c: O Y. Z3 O C; `# p" L6 D4 L1 P) k% \
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.- j% J. t/ U, S9 G, h; z( R4 y$ U
$ U; T! r. S; mAnd in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
3 {% W8 d" M% N7 {4 ~$ D4 A* O8 ]% |! V4 R' N
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." X9 K7 @$ j4 Z& O
! P8 W/ e* ?' u( P3 S4 ?! c\"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. R# j& F! _& ]+ ] ~, v& r
9 ^! D5 U6 m) oHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\".
; H8 R! R! W! \# U! G- Z; d) T) T P$ m8 @6 D& F- X3 K
\"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.& F9 O2 {' N" n. ?$ [
4 v5 J, Q: \' d8 G3 m\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|