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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- n* @0 w# \# K: }4 G+ \% @% }
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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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A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.
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; e+ d4 u) v. |5 t0 y+ f2 L9 ZThe study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.9 A1 m3 m4 n% I) Q- G- i
. C! y' v7 Q5 n0 WThe 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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- f( e2 k, W W$ o8 N4 U' vThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.6 K# A; N3 g: n% c8 O6 Z' e. m2 m
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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.
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+ i. b/ a3 a5 ZTheir 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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4 }5 S7 w, x# q5 C4 {: l3 dOne 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.9 o: t9 S) {+ }8 }3 Y
( L( Z2 F) f% V9 @; ]At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.
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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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& @# B$ A5 S. I& I1 T6 N- H& p2 A\"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., A7 u3 w3 ]; [! m% p* P! P
8 Y$ O' W. Y* W( Y, G( r, G7 i\"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.\") g1 G- F w5 G5 t4 W5 f3 t O; f
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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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$ d8 x* y3 @7 j# ?( E9 P/ K. mThe team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.+ [- _7 {7 M% J8 L7 x) a
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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.
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% H: Z' u; J4 QAnd in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
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( S; b* }6 Y2 \" G# V& x. ~1 MHowever, 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.' a4 r" S( l) d5 \7 w/ X9 v
! R1 i4 |+ E& ], C1 i; z\"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.! D8 v7 D( m+ C9 k
" a/ K, w$ c' |0 _3 b% @However, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". : }3 f' P( j7 k p8 u- V2 Z; Y0 ~
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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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\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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