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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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$ U$ U+ `; B+ [/ D5 H) U' k9 [22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer3 q- n4 x8 Y- N3 f4 z" R
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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.) L F6 W- s" Y7 e" N- w/ b
$ s( Q9 D( b' XThe study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.4 m$ S6 P) m& \4 H2 @' j7 t* P& m2 J
. Z9 x% ^3 j7 | I. [6 HThe 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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" O* N8 a/ m" i2 r9 x* m! U2 gThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.3 n% X+ C* m- r% l7 D% {
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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.& |- M" k: k' q( `) }; e
4 p/ Q j+ }# O. FTheir 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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9 z' v1 E1 }: {0 F- C$ _4 }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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5 X# G3 n; p; w9 b4 R& c7 KAt its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.. r. F- F# m& ^+ q. F3 |! r- Z
! h) `3 v( f* k1 w5 x3 a\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.1 H: U& j* M; |3 _/ v. b8 q& e
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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., N$ X( W. b; G% e
/ G' L3 \0 ^3 p4 C' v4 X2 k4 K\"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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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%.\"" t. p$ [+ i/ J: g0 g
; _' v$ k2 t4 F( O6 O- @4 q8 m8 SThe 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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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.
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And 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.
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: e& `5 J% K+ V\"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.
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However, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\".
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" W2 w4 x6 f/ V1 h3 P1 P5 f! j8 j; a- u\"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.' |" F1 }/ `. G( |) _
( @* n# G! }* ^% Z\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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