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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3 c) |! }( Z. V9 c; t! ]) E2 x j$ V
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
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5 a' K! C5 M0 j22 March 2011 Last updated at 03:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study saysBy Jason Palmer
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9 p3 d( M5 |0 G5 QScience and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
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. J- k1 ~: m; u1 H3 u5 JA 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.+ Y9 I- x2 c8 u' x9 X
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The team\'s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one. k! j& S( g& {, N5 ~
7 l. ?' @, n! l6 F7 i9 f' k4 s+ s1 OThe result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.7 r8 x0 U' a: [9 ~- w5 ?( C& X
; n8 W4 q5 w8 h2 b! t$ P P4 EThe 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.8 F7 ^3 [/ P( l6 q$ ~# h/ D1 L/ {
! ^4 Y7 w5 ~" a. K1 U/ 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.
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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.: | O. H6 i6 ?) J- C
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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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\"The idea is pretty simple,\" said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.! c% d; C1 D4 g+ Y) }. X M2 f
$ i( E! U0 ~! j" x, X+ 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.0 E% j: d, c( q4 X( c) m
1 W' h- K( O) v3 K1 k% r\"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 c& }/ s: @9 y
. U7 y) J; @7 c8 Y6 u9 H6 zDr 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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5 Q" F' n }2 `+ |3 yThe 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.7 R* _7 T( n9 p- h
3 E6 }. h( s3 r4 CAnd in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.+ b3 t$ s9 Y- l$ b
3 t6 E/ L' m" c c* c6 BHowever, 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 \3 f" `$ t" M
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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.7 X7 e7 Q+ i# Y5 \
" H7 N+ `1 M+ u+ B* \However, he told BBC News that he thought it was \"a suggestive result\". , D( n. J+ Q4 ]- p% Y2 l
: z, P0 w) P8 G% {8 B& I\"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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\"Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.\" |
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