 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- A1 ]2 t3 w- S0 w# a& J' A; i
i+ U- J. q) ?# b. V8 L p$ c) ~8 v3 E. M
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-128111973 u3 t5 Z# Y3 F+ v( W0 ^) F
1 A6 j2 q& n5 U- _ x& t
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
; u, h y+ o4 q1 {" C |) ]
' f p0 d2 |' P) E/ ~& xScience and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
" e: S: L" Y5 U" s0 Z( W0 j) H
) ^5 w s& j! BA study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.
8 V- ?: M* U' v) `3 O/ R
3 ]) F8 ~+ ]6 L4 V. X& \; TThe study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation., [0 N$ A/ _9 g7 v. ?" ?
) [* ~4 ~; x8 E1 q- F. r) n* }
The team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.$ M8 ~ h3 P0 W) s
( b) {" ~* S p7 P5 oThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.
' M8 F5 j9 D) E7 U. y5 W, g# |) t# |1 t- Q
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.. E& }$ y$ x. c
2 z V) G U: L2 W, k) B+ GTheir 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.$ E$ C, \; U T3 t0 s! W
B1 q2 {* |; u( d, W# f
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.
8 l { a8 b, j! e) S8 V
* I" e8 e9 M) p: y7 Q" HAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.
- o2 a' E0 p$ k: x+ d. c6 r' O4 z H
\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.- n/ A/ d$ _7 C: ]+ N% U7 Y
3 m, T4 s" s0 f C. P5 c3 U
\"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.
4 z" z+ H2 f* [6 Y' d: T
3 D' Q6 w9 b! V$ \) D/ x\"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.\"; l& T5 E9 O1 w/ R% r& z9 e4 m
: h; X- L1 T2 I& ?
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 r$ }2 Z* \4 b5 M3 \( W s4 |8 a
2 \/ h5 ~9 \; NThe team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
9 L H/ X- [- c5 A6 y6 q
" P- \( }+ a/ M) WThey 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.( o: r# Q% X4 s8 P: |. N
" Z& A5 E4 I1 ^ UAnd in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
# [3 L- X$ I5 t: K0 W
) l& v/ q0 R0 p# ~. V! n" ~( hHowever, 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.. y: y2 s3 u1 H) V6 m# d" p
]7 @$ V" S- Y2 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.# N5 n3 y0 K8 e7 w2 b
3 h2 _7 V& J/ k) U9 w* `% tHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". " i; P* b# \" z/ d1 f
2 |3 B( V1 H! y1 d, L\"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.* d6 h( b* s) G7 `! k' h
# s, b5 d4 l( L7 z: K$ K\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|