Researchers of the American Physical Society have released a census study of over 100 years of data showing that Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland will be void of Christians.
UPDATE 12/30/12: Christians, Extinct in Middle East, as Islam Wins
-- From "Faith no more! From New Zealand to Canada, religion 'to become extinct' in nine countries" by U.K. Daily Mail Reporter 3/22/11
The study was carried out by Northwestern University and the University of Arizona.
Richard Wiener, of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, led the scientific survey.
He said: '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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From "Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study says" by Jason Palmer, Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas 3/22/11
The team's mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.
Nonlinear dynamics is invoked to explain a wide range of physical phenomena in which a number of factors play a part.
[Richard Wiener said,] "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.
"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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From "God keep our land? The numbers raise doubts" by Frank Appleyard, Postmedia News, posted at the Montreal Gazette 3/22/11
The study attempted to link these countries' religious identities with the social motives behind belonging to particular groups. Researchers said that as the masses who claim religious non-affiliation swell, it becomes more appealing to join the ranks of that group.
Weiner speculated that social pressures are contributing to the decline in religious identification in these countries. "People no longer see the slate of benefits as being as great as they probably did 100 years ago. It's become less socially useful."
In the Netherlands, where close to 50 per cent of the population identifies as not belonging to a religion, Weiner said they found that by mid-century close to 70 per cent of the country will be made up of non-believers.
"That's very substantial growth over four decades," Weiner said. "It's not saying that religion will not exist, but it will very strongly change the makeup of society. Maybe in 100 years in some of these countries if this trend continues, there will be a very small percentage of people that still identify themselves as belonging to a religion."
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