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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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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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$ O/ H& [7 |' P- }( R, n" O; O' {" nScience and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas: T% W+ L$ p0 b2 W! o! H; q
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A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.
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* F' L4 R" q0 I7 y2 b% GThe study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
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0 b+ b( P6 |& c+ t* kThe team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one. t7 k- G( q! l+ }" 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.( S. |2 x3 U3 i4 q( c* |
1 g! I; j9 I+ y3 s1 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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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.
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At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.9 g. b$ h& H' D
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\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.1 `! m5 [. M% E4 p9 m
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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.' y& c6 l* ?4 N \
3 R7 T( Z1 R3 ]7 {: ^5 e8 Q# F6 V\"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.\"2 D4 W6 g/ I# \0 H/ l3 b+ |8 G
% I* s; d8 G" X4 Z$ ZDr 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%.\"' C3 @+ [8 |: L Z4 B* ^
* q: f5 |7 Z" q$ O$ {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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, f& p% b) A0 W1 W( _$ B! i& ZThey 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.
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And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
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1 w4 _3 a5 S R# wHowever, 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.
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- [3 p' O9 r" `4 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./ l3 B" X+ r% g2 b4 H) W6 M# ]
`- q- Y, ?9 |1 J. X/ O+ A. OHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". d+ G. `" H8 `+ K! u
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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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3 B4 V/ b. Z q! U5 [3 I& C: \\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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