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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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/ C; O b8 K3 s# q- Y. h' }4 y( m0 Ohttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
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. s% q# ] X' p0 V22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer, N7 ~& F" D. ~9 N$ b
9 \) Y& g" L. pScience 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.* I; J& s# @2 r4 p
$ h8 H7 a- {, k* z, {/ o; FThe study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
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+ ]; T$ q9 H% U" RThe team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one./ y- z3 K$ R9 R- G+ _0 d- O
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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.$ B( p& u6 Z) Y) G) ~
1 k* Y2 g9 A& L8 {" nThe 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.8 d% J3 L. E4 h/ `
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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 j+ b; x! @% E
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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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2 [ z c% x9 p3 P. X3 QAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.7 y3 Z1 g- ^9 ^9 D6 Q* H
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\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona., c. P8 T* W0 k* e1 a! ^2 I
/ O) ^" y. t/ Q- K6 M\"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.' m& C; l* A4 \+ w9 t, _
8 T* ]- a) Q- 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.\"! ~! i7 B8 w# T5 A* G
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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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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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7 R) S. W: A. [- ~ pThey 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.! ^; i" P. u3 f) A, e2 v
- ?; b n+ Q" `1 ?( Y1 LAnd in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
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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.: i( U& _- k5 e/ V S. [! V D
4 t1 `. A; Y- R6 N( N7 x\"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.; l( u( s) T/ n1 ~( Q2 X/ ]8 w
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However, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". 7 D+ A& }0 y, p, n' ^% z1 y6 t( ]
. V- s( e+ J; r+ D; Y: r% p4 j\"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 q' w6 V& K$ X# T8 G( f, i( d
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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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