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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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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
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. r% L) A3 \+ H' j22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer- k0 `/ w: J7 \% o7 F
* v* f# i `3 G; ~1 f+ y6 t0 ]; RScience and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas( ~# h2 T7 b. ^) F, N3 N
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A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.2 w( g2 X; n! f8 V
( \, H K+ ?1 D& t5 `$ W: IThe study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.! S; b5 g) ]( j; |' e1 y: u
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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.
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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.
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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.
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$ b+ Q5 C/ H: pTheir 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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( c+ L1 l% \& |& @+ _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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( E" J+ D3 g% M0 p8 y: K8 GAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.) Z6 y) M" k5 m2 O/ X8 ~/ e. N+ D+ S" j
+ O7 n) j* y: e6 B5 i$ c+ D\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.
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\"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.* Z7 k& Q& e& G! N4 h# l# C1 ^
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\"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.\") _9 r. X0 m0 @: X# W1 u6 E( p8 D: I
; |, c& G. ~, ^1 k/ s! \7 [4 n& u5 @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%.\"* v3 n! q& G/ R( c& V# z
: ^+ F# k& ^% Y1 vThe team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.6 C: E5 ?0 V9 b- k) Y
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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.0 e' J* u3 e; r* @7 h
) y% g% X& n1 HAnd 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.* j; ~7 i2 |" T
$ |4 e C- Y! {4 B0 t+ ?\"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. H/ Q' y+ Y6 f3 C1 L V; }+ t$ N/ k" ~
% B7 W* E3 G* O$ lHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". 0 V. r- E: W& h6 x
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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.
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+ D- j# M4 Y& L& w\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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