 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6 S: N& D# B" b% L# i4 U8 P' O
: R9 W* E0 M) `4 Y, d# D
& q/ e; b( Z( vhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-128111971 x3 Z0 X+ S }# L
7 L6 `1 E+ _$ K/ _
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
% |9 ?9 @8 d% d8 v- w
7 M" z* W) C% h% ?, Y$ vScience and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas' U8 s" C: F v' e' Q1 }
" S5 p4 J/ }- m) R3 C, h/ hA study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers." A5 s. p+ i2 |0 F2 u. m
# G& w% J6 w+ v! k7 W& M9 Y: i
The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
) R$ z2 K4 w7 [2 Z5 F
& p" U' Q! M& [( _$ B4 f* _, f7 hThe team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.
+ w9 M) S1 l- t, ?' e9 G/ L. l/ w
0 k8 h/ F: [& ZThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.
8 w6 e2 m' B) O0 r! ?6 j4 U
/ G. d+ H, X( l5 _ T+ hThe 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.
4 ~1 u2 B( a. T" N
' c4 E6 |# {( Z* N N% YTheir 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.
7 U" j. s) K7 `, y8 j8 u
5 U/ q \ p! x6 gOne 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.' w9 k; H/ `1 T% g
/ K0 i. \- d- h! \
At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another. ~9 x$ h7 ^7 _
$ J0 [6 H2 S B7 \, @\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.% M3 G. x, q- J+ m) }+ h4 m9 }
5 ]- X' ?& d6 C. ^- X8 O. |/ j) A. z\"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.
1 p! T* ~; C! u+ O! W
# T" i# l {9 v2 l, a3 @\"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.\"
' [( ^, o$ h) T: t0 k! Z+ m% P9 `8 o% v* w; U
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%.\"
9 K$ d! Z4 j) N9 W& y2 Y$ P' ` I& A" z. x9 J- D3 r7 {" o: \
The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.5 n/ V, x* ~3 I$ B: H! {, D& R
- F+ T5 t' P0 s1 N
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.
' f* y+ S1 R- ]( Q5 ^. x$ o. D! Z& _' B8 _3 @
And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.1 B5 G6 X+ \; z$ E/ y! R0 m) x
1 @2 R4 v% M+ z5 i8 `- _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.
; U# W0 B+ @2 j/ x" J" T o/ N* x4 l/ \, A3 h. w, ^
\"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. u4 A1 J3 W4 ]( j. A6 }/ }( u
7 }# f& T" B4 _/ U. z: g% [# Y+ @
However, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". ' o2 Z, h, g `
! ]. t2 k4 z5 }- g5 D' U, j' S
\"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.
$ c' B% q6 S9 ^# t& K, ]+ Q% @8 A. N9 s. ~8 @
\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|