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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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! l/ J9 X3 @# w6 E5 N& hhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197# w; X% |( e1 S' K5 Q. W
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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; l+ B, B; j1 z& b0 i
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Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
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A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.+ m6 s2 V9 M8 }, p! v/ o$ k3 v% z
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The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.4 b& y# {$ v/ i, q+ V
. {" Q; o+ k& k# x1 ]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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1 G6 [8 g- I* }The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.) `9 |0 e% k8 C) E7 n! c6 Y/ M
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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.& |6 Q8 z9 t1 e7 A: N) t
$ N1 V4 k9 M: ?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.
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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.9 a8 q. I' I! O: Q. n; G& B
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At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another./ X" B6 _ U) n$ I" `
! F0 L. R, n. ~1 H* M5 x\"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.- h( R; h. I" h8 ?, y, U) U' q
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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.\"" |3 L9 n) i3 g+ H, j9 i
1 {0 x) z. N( ?, `$ s6 |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%.\"
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4 E0 h/ {8 c' r7 q& J+ F7 [The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.( X9 X1 ?: l% e
3 {* T6 _: U$ d& DThey 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.
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6 K' ?4 T6 F* o+ T' F& CAnd in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.$ M( r/ U* A6 J1 t, d. C2 |
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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.1 D9 j( d2 K2 c! |
& T; n) F& Q. g5 Y* _5 W% w8 l\"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., Y$ {# c' ?: b5 y0 w0 J
- Z+ B: v0 w% n# W" G+ WHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". 8 j2 O3 `9 C5 k- \# V+ f$ L
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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./ x* t1 A- e+ R
+ C$ r" l5 g4 a9 g: ^" R\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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