 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
! m1 Q2 p9 P* t$ y1 X9 k( n- Z4 z8 I. Q
' X& z0 o0 u5 n: k9 z7 I0 S) S5 n; j h3 q$ T; R; A
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197 L6 S4 U7 T+ L$ p7 P6 v4 N
9 j; v r/ N! g1 z+ A& i( I( h22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer
. X4 e( r9 Z9 } o' V2 U & ? d1 A* M ?# |
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
8 ]% k1 s* L9 e* L% C' x; o0 O% h ?: }; _: }' [, Y/ i. y
A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.
# h2 }" b- P* }; I: H. c* L l: D8 a) ~% J
The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
1 V6 q [: F* J: S3 h, E+ L) M& c( N4 h/ 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.$ Z" F6 q" y2 g \
+ e% Y% \. i# l, \. lThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.
6 z, ^& d4 ^) g! r) _+ A
* I z& n2 R/ L9 P: ^$ Q5 e# o; qThe 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.
( E1 n4 {+ g6 I: `, l% I2 q% U H4 T1 I; N4 d7 }) W
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.
2 w3 ?+ _+ R! X! @: [" @
0 F, U9 C( u* J% u& s4 V" S/ ROne 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 W7 i! f6 Z0 H5 f3 ^9 Y
6 f" [% f3 S9 u9 l; P/ oAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.
w- o9 G! j7 _7 W9 w$ L8 w4 i/ [7 ~. b, B! U/ Z
\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.
/ I% v( X! R$ i3 S% _! Q/ ^$ O* R
3 \1 m# H1 ~& D6 ?5 n4 _3 ^\"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.
! x* X, U$ F) m6 L" L6 G
5 Q5 U2 f/ ]! P9 y\"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.\"7 L+ `; n5 U$ M! n
: n& o& P* a+ F8 u2 ?
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%.\"
" q& P) j4 d7 [3 S: z. E2 i8 ~$ C- I/ l2 P# U2 e6 H8 s
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 K7 P9 ~5 H. n& f% D! x" c7 \9 t, L! ] M& A5 C& y
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.$ T$ t8 n6 P. a% g2 M
L" R4 ?4 m6 d6 j/ J
And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction." u# M3 y6 L2 i, L5 u8 r5 W
/ `# j: c$ d/ m; a7 {# g1 oHowever, 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.
9 h' r) r$ v6 ^
! O' W5 \' ?* B, o" t0 k\"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.$ }! M/ H+ I% w( f
) k Q8 I3 a% E4 |4 h* g7 mHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\".
( ]- k( D- H( d% v; p" e! B' O$ S
: {6 |# _ Y! w2 \5 F2 o/ r3 ~\"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.
/ I: P1 y* i# }# S( x" J
! l, U& ]9 D# q6 n. y. }* @\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|