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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- z3 r R# v7 V) e
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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& V5 X. P4 {+ p3 B9 O/ q' }: b0 w: q
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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.
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The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
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& x: {6 V5 C. I: k7 B6 `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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. {- l% Q; y) R+ G: e0 R) sTheir 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 @2 `6 G# M) x6 |! B+ R) A. P
|! {% J% t( B: D# g% i% f9 h4 ~" R. aOne 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. [! ?" A4 h: M
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At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.
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$ v1 e9 @% k/ N! Q' M\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.& q1 o6 L( H' Z+ @/ l
, ]; r+ j6 y, `# Z7 k+ x4 S6 h\"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 c6 [0 U& v% l* v, L
& g! E7 f: @8 W4 d9 ~8 j\"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.\"
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: [$ {' v; p# d$ j2 w& VDr 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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The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the \"non-religious\" category.
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# ~7 ~! i" ^, ?* ~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.( ?9 L! ]1 h9 G3 m( M
$ X& C/ h; n& B i3 d: mAnd in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction., [4 B7 a F% x4 W# Q
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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.8 ]5 B6 e" j+ x* h
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\"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.& S7 ~8 {; Q# f9 J' m
) N" h! _8 v# M* qHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". 0 a7 r4 e- Z& }# p9 j, n
# R5 _; w5 y8 N% L\"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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# I5 ]# U: K' e7 o$ [\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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