 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
5 U2 o: f- l# `% p! u1 z- O9 n3 q4 t
1 O r1 s/ x4 k2 p% S8 L
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197$ ]8 {0 @' P2 [/ m' R, G' N
8 H7 G1 z) o1 {2 {
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+ q* j6 q5 z6 @1 |. c
% a$ c" T" S( f t, I
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
: c* c( H+ Q; v+ U2 f7 W
- O1 O1 Q4 Y5 O0 V, b: m& PA study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.
6 Z7 I; w2 Y: E' R: ~0 e2 n* \+ b4 P( K6 X) Y9 \, b9 R( j" A9 A
The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation., r( b2 A: V- c
$ o; c5 w1 w+ N5 G
The team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.& m0 G8 k5 P' b; Z
, W3 W5 Y h4 n7 ~' s: Q/ qThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.
3 d9 H; ], v- {* l
0 R5 W& a2 W* N1 h/ KThe 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.1 z6 s" w! X' p$ v5 p& o
/ I5 ^- Z9 e, ^% V& Y ATheir 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.4 o1 V u! d: ~+ M) y( x
5 ?- R a- h$ d6 J) v
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.
; M7 `7 r& A4 Q' {# ~ d- s/ o( n
0 r; {3 t2 X, v* tAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.& q9 P: i1 [( a9 m7 [" Y- \
0 u: h4 W) f9 k: b- C6 T\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.( m9 v6 }# U; s h5 b$ B
2 Q- i$ M3 G$ s! C6 y
\"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.$ T7 J" `! y$ |1 J& w$ y% U
5 k- F9 g2 `( X- I% v\"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.\") h! c3 E9 |4 v; \
. R! ~5 ?. w- c( i( b" e' c% mDr 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%.\"0 r6 h' P/ N: I& I6 q2 ~+ z& f
2 L6 I4 e$ h( n1 G
The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
, f4 W9 x: l# d* X# v) R* b! v4 ~* P0 R: M
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 E5 x5 q) }. z( [* T
8 x7 ~% { A: D$ V
And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.: B5 |6 l3 O. C
& B5 ?$ z6 N. r( R* p7 L- C
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( r% m, I8 R0 n2 D
+ f1 R0 Q- 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.
1 m% {% B0 B* R. l+ R
0 o" \& w* a3 t5 K" sHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\".
% y( L0 K D; E/ A" B% G+ I. W g3 m5 E) ]" h
\"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.
a+ \# f; U9 g p- C1 ?6 A8 f
z# X, Q& q4 ]+ [ J }\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|