 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2 R8 a+ v# H5 z0 E4 t& ?
' h$ l/ N" p6 J7 Z( P) w' g- z' ?
3 }0 e/ b: v' D+ J- phttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
0 k# ^* t0 |# X8 \
$ ^1 I7 T: p( c22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer- C3 E7 z, R4 d
; T# h! z6 K7 R
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
1 ~* ?5 [. P4 R/ q; Y, Z
2 t; y/ [ o+ m( D k9 cA study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.
a8 Y0 a! M1 d5 C, U2 u- X |$ Q: Y/ r! g1 a2 w
The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
3 j) }: T) X4 S5 e% @) L% c2 ?! b) d0 V$ X+ G0 U9 \! u
The team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.2 o+ U! G$ R3 c: V* q
5 w0 k, ^: C7 W1 O. B8 [- bThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.8 x% t2 g F* T I0 A
4 H, t! n; N8 S9 M; I( TThe 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.
: ?2 r) F1 i+ O- m% B7 i' o( K: Q9 f6 d
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.6 l# I5 i" K! r3 I
# L+ b. w) j! P( C: m; ~. g3 M
One 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.( |6 D- a& o6 r. I) ]5 m
4 M9 S" r! G) D2 Z$ ?3 d
At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.5 J7 Y3 M7 H) T
$ [% Q3 z& O4 D) G3 d\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.3 [5 b0 O0 y+ A# P% N
+ N; Z7 h+ D8 J' U, r
\"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.
$ }% v. Q4 ]# `/ [# C; ], b9 N9 O, W' F" S0 G% G
\"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.\"% z7 H- x7 f- l ?
1 k- ^7 J7 V" q& @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%.\"
; A8 _& l& T' z5 W, @! C4 N4 [$ w' F7 [
- z* m) C5 [ E) X# }- PThe team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
" X: @' T) ~6 r9 _ { O( K6 ?* G( h" L1 N/ ?3 Y
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.9 p* d2 I) T% W# Q# u+ n
% l0 P, ]( V' E9 H$ s% Y; U' I9 a
And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
: Q* `- P+ S6 p$ v5 u' {
; Z" k8 `! |7 ?7 B" z L: w7 R- tHowever, 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.
9 L+ | @- ~ F/ W* y
" m" E/ O- F, R. q8 |\"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.
0 @5 t7 [% ~' a# ^ _( F. v' q
However, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". , G8 n) b' m6 N
% h" v P, J, ^* q' v: S3 c\"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.5 B: @# Q3 p$ c) L5 ^9 {8 `! {
2 i1 |+ V' M" E7 V" o
\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|