Memeplex

[Captain Frapo]

Religions are "memeplexes," ie. intellectual viruses that have survived not because they are true, but because they excel at replication and infection. But I doubt whether humanity will ever be entirely free of religion, because Natural Selection may have made us susceptible to religious beliefs. Normally natural selection works at the level of individual organisms, but religion might be a rare case of an adaptation that took hold because it benefited groups of individuals. Societies bound by a common religious belief - for which they would fight to the death - might have been more cohesive and hence more likely to survive. than societies ruled solely by self-interest.

[StonedApe]

Hopefully your right in using the past tense in that last sentence.

[Arra]

The idea of a meme is interesting, and can be applied to almost any idea. A meme is an idea that undergoes evolution, as you describe in the first paragraph. A religion that is, for whatever reason, likely to be repeated and passed on to others, is going to have a higher chance of surviving the generations. For example, a religion that doesn't allow its members to have sex, and doesn't believe in preaching to others, is doomed to die out when the believers do. On the other hand, a religion that is good at drawing people into it, preaches preaching to nonbelievers, and having a lot of kids, is going to spread to other people easily and survive longer. The evolution of people's acceptence of religion is a different matter. It just occurred to me that the two form a mutually beneficial relationship, evolving together. The meme of religion evolves to meet our needs so that we'll accept it more easily, while our minds or our societies evolve to be more willing to accept religion.

[ChaybaChayba]

Well the idea of a meme basically comes down to an idea that spreads itself. So a meme is just an idea really. a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation); "memes are the cultural counterpart of genes" Anyway, the idea of a memeplex however is very interesting. You call it intellectual virusses but I wouldn't call it a virus persé, as not all religions are harmful. Atheism for example is also a memeplex, which is not harmful to society. I would rather argue, that these memeplexes fight a war of who is the best memeplex. A war of belief is being fought, and the winner will rule the world. Right now Atheism is winning in the west, so Atheism is going to determine the general world's view. My country for example has been succesfully converted from 100% christianity to almost 100% atheism (atleast among the youth). So the memeplex of Atheism has won the war against the Christian memeplex. Anyway the Roman Empire also believed in Memeplexes. As a matter of fact, they used the Bible as a tool, a memeplex, to subdue foreign cultures. After colonization, they enforced the religion of christianity, replacing all native religions. For the Roman colonizers, religion was nothing but a tool to control the masses. Of course, Christianity has a lot of good points, but that is exactly what makes this memeplex contagious in the first place. The idea of Jesus, to turn the other cheek, might sound good at first, but if you look deeper into it, it results into passivity and sheep behavior, it prevents people from retailiating against a higher authority. Christianity was an artifical installation of the Roman Empire to control the colonizations. However, the ideas of this memeplex were so extremely contagious, that today it is still living and infecting the world. The basic idea behind Christianity is good one, but, it has been twisted in such a way, that it leads to negative passive social behavior so the masses are easily controlled by an authority. So did you coin the term of memeplex yourself? I think you're onto a really interesting concept here.

[Invader]

Check out one of O'nus's older threads. You may find it relevant. http://www.dreamviews.com/f36/we-all...lieving-85893/

[Captain Frapo]

I wouldn't call it a virus persé, as not all religions are harmful. So did you coin the term of memeplex yourself? I think you're onto a really interesting concept here. I do not mean virus in a negative sense, as the connotations of the word imply, but merely the fact that it replicates like one. There are plenty of beneficial viruses. And no, I didn't coin the term myself but am fascinated by the concept.

[ChaybaChayba]

Yeah I'm fascniated by it now too, thanks for introducing me to it ^^