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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4 C+ }% `- Q) [$ B Y; U* k% J
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) K% Q+ m, J6 Lhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
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, }7 S) A5 b; {8 F8 E4 b3 t22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer; o- x* h, @$ @6 i' `* M
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Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas. `! m/ C8 Z5 t
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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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The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
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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.5 d. Z" J4 Q% @# [% i/ M* v
! k2 V; A# z lThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.% M2 q* |6 Q: n( k
) v2 d4 ]) G8 ]* 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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" Q5 n% A" W4 k% V' x6 T. I3 nTheir 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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7 R# o' }- W& N7 P0 tOne 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.$ ]6 r$ j& Y1 j8 O- Q' S
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At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.( |2 P3 Z. ^+ P6 t1 w3 j8 @
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\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona. ` R% i- e' F, J0 a6 l, ~: \
3 f% A) k3 W) e\"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! f f; z5 Y+ x& e( s
+ c* p5 r# t- n' ~\"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.\"3 q1 O$ C% k2 X- u. n
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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%.\"7 u3 U1 U" f5 W
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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.1 B2 ^* q+ s; T: R+ d
0 m% |. G; j1 aThey 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.3 D! F/ f& K' y
, M9 e; f( I; 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.0 r% ?1 w8 f( |. G* {, v: H/ p/ Z
4 c+ X) M+ P7 p- y, g\"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.8 p9 h- b: U m* b; O. d
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However, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\".
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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.1 ?4 y/ A0 W3 Y
" o& f4 o- q/ L* r( c" O\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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