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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
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: ~* R1 C: k$ L K g* {; rhttp://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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Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
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8 I( k* m7 a# F" x* ?- N7 xA study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.
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The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.0 v( m, d# Z9 p- Y: U
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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.
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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., i0 L D \ i7 q ?) S8 h5 Y
7 G& S$ K: D6 B6 x+ Y 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.
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6 Y P, }) O$ N, V ?( P/ aTheir 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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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.2 i9 H. k, t) k2 z
9 U4 Y+ L, y& ]# ^& u; x+ {6 rAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.# y7 |1 X# ? I5 `
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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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8 Q0 k4 U1 J3 a9 d\"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.2 v7 O" ^6 j( ^ [5 J) C0 g
* r& C$ e, @0 {) U# K9 D\"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 h4 k5 E9 D/ z( p; L# y! _
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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%.\"
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* i. E4 A4 n3 A( yThe 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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- @+ }# D% p1 HThey 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./ D9 w6 a; n+ k8 c6 g
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And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction." W. J- W7 m0 a6 z
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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.% f( B3 j2 I. p9 ^
/ Z- F* Y! Y. U\"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.( X T% F& l* e! ?
5 I! X' \! S( L7 dHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". $ v! u, J8 |2 U/ k( `
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\"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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, r" |9 `- L6 A- F. c6 C0 @, G\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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