Physicists predict end of religion, according to a report in BBC News 22 March 2011. A group of researchers analysed census data from nine countries and concluded that “religion there is set for extinction”. The team collected data from the following countries where the census asks for religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. Richard Wiener of University of Arizona explained: “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%”. The team used a mathematical model known as non-linear dynamics to analyse the data. This model has previously been used to predict the demise of languages. Wiener explained: “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 Quechuan in Peru, and similarly there’s some kind of status or utility in being a member of a religion or not”.
Editorial Comment These physicists and mathematicians should learn some lessons from history. Voltaire the famous French atheist, the communists of the Soviet empire and the British Beatle’s John Lennon all said similar things and look what has happened to each of them. These researchers seem to be working on the assumption that religious belief is just something people participate in because it is culturally acceptable. People didn’t join the church in Russia under communism because it was “acceptable”. The authors of this e-news did not become Christian creationists because their academic colleagues made it the IN group. Somehow the real God never seems to just go away when it becomes unfashionable to be in the church. And the reason is simple – the real creator God does not exist in the beliefs of people, or because of God winning a popularity contest. Truth is never determined by who or how many believe in it. Even if no-one believed, God still exists. Furthermore this God who is Christ has promised he will have a people for himself until the end of the world. (Ref. philosophy, world views, surveys, society)
Evidence News 9 June 2011