 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& u# U9 D; E% P) {4 o% K
: j4 F( n$ k! _ F |
: b/ C0 I# M; nhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
1 r* E% @0 h8 L; X! i) f. o, ]' v- U2 z6 E6 u
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) F* N' Y5 y! E
( l; s K' J- K, P" ~7 @
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
9 \# n* @. J" ?4 H/ {
* c2 K! U* `% N' N( A# \' eA study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.0 r& \0 k; K8 G0 O, E, L2 q, h
, V9 B$ Y- e5 b. q [$ |1 Q) Y0 }2 [The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation." j, g" k# d; C8 \
! d- N# f: I; j, ^- a4 uThe team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one., D: i$ T( e% Q N; L
* W, ]" d% N+ R: \& G8 y& p: f% [The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.
) h) U% d# z; m4 F4 U* R
' A2 k7 a- f+ sThe 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., b! H. u/ L9 t/ _2 g4 x+ D5 g
$ [8 c: S9 h5 G. ]3 BTheir 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.1 }7 ?. ]- V. @1 q+ _1 H
4 N5 ?+ t0 T; `% W g
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.
, D, g1 o% V8 I% s# X A& u" \5 ?
At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the \"utility\" of speaking one instead of another.
+ L" Z8 j- G# F; h* {7 y! q9 h) T
\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.4 `& ~5 k' y1 F# F! d, i
3 A1 M- w. w0 Z+ n% @/ k\"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.8 `4 T0 q" G- y. ]
6 T# m. o/ ]- n, q\"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.\"
; x/ B$ j' a+ b" L2 e% r4 a3 i6 }* E! L9 ^( Q$ x( a
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%.\"/ [; y8 M6 k( B2 c; _! C6 C* b
* N: `/ r; k1 j7 R$ {3 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.
3 U% [6 y% g3 @$ l
+ F& t9 k5 n# }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.* o) s' `6 G& x$ o: Z( u( s
- i: W6 e. |6 D0 \5 {; e9 W6 @And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
+ ~; X/ k/ p3 P; ?5 O0 k4 K3 P2 E& I# r6 g
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.
" @3 }5 m9 ?* X
3 Z, H/ h$ F1 X: \\"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.' L" k" e* P0 [) L4 o; n
/ @8 b/ ]; r6 n9 @- q5 `8 }4 j; UHowever, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". 7 J6 g# y5 [+ b k$ I* J2 w
- I( q$ E6 a. [ w$ 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.1 p; ]1 J/ U/ J. M, {
4 y7 ~# P; Y: a0 X6 g0 E
\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
|