 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$ x6 M( Y$ A$ L; M! V s
1 Y$ T) z& [( A8 q# i1 ?# C" J2 M/ N. N1 Z
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
" \" |: T$ Y6 t- T; f1 u
7 }: [6 B9 u' B, v2 w22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer
7 K1 g6 D+ |/ E4 ]/ p/ Q" a3 q ' U6 @0 M7 z. E; @; A
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas6 \, H) ]6 r9 i: W; w! V7 B9 ?
4 r0 y: n- ^% k4 A* \
A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.$ @% @ k1 }& ~% B
8 x+ ]6 s8 m9 ]. j# _
The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
: ]: n$ _. H+ E/ q L2 e1 ^+ o3 L& |2 D% d. [- Y" H
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 k2 e8 i, n& D/ B- _! Q+ y
) r! T, f' @7 I6 K% lThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.
+ W7 F [& K Q; v, Z" G. Z1 r* R# S8 N; u+ e7 _; @3 B; _& a
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.
5 S0 Y. V2 [# W4 O2 c2 _: E0 v, r) I
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.
# K4 Y- m T% X3 ]9 p, @( O0 a* l+ a$ b8 o8 \6 |
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.7 T. x+ v8 n$ Y
6 ?# T& K6 T2 V4 W
At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.1 N5 K4 }% Q: b P
. X/ J% f* }) Q# {$ y\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.
& @; X# b% p; u% ~9 ?8 Q$ {! ?
; ?# Y0 J* Z. D: D6 ]% |\"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.
! [7 \3 E; |' l% ^8 @/ @
% M* V4 Z1 T; y/ {. ]9 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.\"
/ r( f7 A! b8 W+ Y, J2 z) O
7 o1 k: u) _* a: p( \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%.\"6 F5 }! s* |5 w" t4 N& s: V1 }+ _. ]
) F. }; E# r' {$ V ~6 z1 BThe team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
0 ^ }* }! c" D
6 b2 {7 n& z9 ` x# CThey 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.
+ E; {' V6 I2 Q& C& B; P5 k1 o' _8 u4 W* h
And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.9 @. I8 _9 T& \+ f ~
1 j u U# g" c8 a3 eHowever, 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 q* L' T' l) f6 e
0 m% e3 V/ l: ~& }( r
\"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.$ I* B6 R4 P A7 T1 i( ^
3 d$ z9 u* l/ f: M0 T: fHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". ( A2 Q3 \& Y/ h& X. W( q
5 y, i& I6 M) E, i, o9 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.( I5 F/ X- P# l( i
/ E2 Y$ W% x2 O3 \
\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|