 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 a7 i G( ?+ Q6 F
+ l) j2 I( A6 a* A) X
* i. E, ]0 s4 shttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
; i( N) t1 j% D( C# o4 g& K6 H
! B- e7 d$ {# N. W2 z* R22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer- _: x3 Q" p$ J ~7 O
+ ~$ ^, v! `. m3 L; W c5 `9 _9 x
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
' a: r, ~9 d+ a* n' S E; c/ L7 H. |
6 o1 c/ f' y! yA study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.
" N4 q4 z, M1 U. ^& A" v7 F
& z/ S6 y9 `$ @& y) _6 B- r) }The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
( @- p* D0 m; N" i0 ~( }6 j. J3 P# Y2 g- f
The team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.
8 \/ k. G- H0 f: B7 l
$ |5 s1 X* y, P1 r& MThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.+ l" S3 r# T: `% ?1 M- n8 ^
3 O: z7 f' \0 h2 R. v
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.
$ ]1 y% I% S! _
Y5 L1 L' d6 s! g0 y" m9 CTheir 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.
" [* M- M- Y/ _' W4 c( A, s. }! Y4 B- c8 d- |- X3 y* a" g$ }( ^2 E
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.
* x3 Y4 t! C0 c8 V& ]' u3 k6 {* S! g K* q
At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.- h+ d- C% a* r, b# Q7 c
1 C7 ~. l5 I% k& Q' F. D
\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.
1 |# d7 ]/ K4 P1 \6 \& {& D' H
Z: @) {) [! |8 l\"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.3 B8 V- S, j$ V. @# b l
7 F- e& J' S: ^0 h: l1 z% 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.\"0 `- \* H5 ]( V( ^+ M' N
8 L g5 U. @( ~$ C! v
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%.\"
. X5 ~7 G Z7 y$ G+ t; |+ L9 v0 Y% A1 E" Y( E" P) J
The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
% t3 d |8 B) e# C7 n- A
K K: p5 W5 ?$ ^3 RThey 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./ B0 e8 Z, K1 z2 T
; e+ B- C/ T" o$ p- E( Z# _And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.0 K" O0 o( g, |2 A
- r, e) Z8 o2 U7 c5 R, @$ w$ s
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.
6 K1 Q7 K) m4 l# q! _* Y
# E& U% I' S" H# v, A\"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." Z2 m; f* T1 q; h! m9 e* K
7 Z6 O1 a. h# M$ p- D0 {& P' ?& NHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\".
! C |- w+ p: K H9 \, w
! N7 t4 P1 w( R\"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.4 D& t. ^, Q/ b; r
& L! B9 V) j& d' g: @+ D, R\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|