Gottsch, J. D. (2001). Mutation, Selection, and Vertical Transmission of Theistic Memes in Religious Canons.
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 5.
http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2001/vol5/gottsch_jd.html

Mutation, Selection, And Vertical Transmission Of Theistic Memes In Religious Canons

John D. Gottsch

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205

jgottsch@jhmi.edu

Abstract
References

Abstract

A study of ancient and modern Near Eastern religious canons reveals the mutation, selection, and vertical transmission of fitness-enhancing textual units, defined as theistic memes. The earliest recorded theistic memes dealt with human fear of death and defined man's earliest relationship to god. Theistic memes that could theoretically affect fitness through selection and incorporation into religious canons included those dictating beliefs about (a) self-awareness in an unknown world, (b) strategies and behaviors toward others and within the nuclear family, and (c) appropriate sexual behaviors within marriage. Prohibition of aberrant sexual practices such as incest, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, castration, and religious prostitution would have further maximized fitness. A remarkable mutation of the ancient Near Eastern theistic meme of child sacrifice is documented in the Old Testament in the story of Abraham and Isaac. Vertically transmitted theistic memes in the Hebrew canon were largely incorporated into Christian and Muslim religious canons (New Testament and Qur'an). Mutations of theistic memes during vertical transmission into these other canons allowed the same fitness-enhancing stability for the gentile and Arabic populations and are notable for the different strategies used to produce homogenized, orthodox canons.
Keywords: Religious canon, fitness, meme, mutation

1 Introduction

Dawkins (1976) coined the term meme (from the Greek mimeme, meaning "imitation") to describe a unit of cultural transmission. A meme serves as a memory device that can be propagated from person to person and from generation to generation in the form of spoken or written words or by example. Memes include ideas, knowledge, and concepts. Blackmore (1999) has further defined the meme as having properties that convey memory, can randomly vary, and are subject to selection. Heylighen (1998) has outlined the selection criteria necessary for memes to be successfully propagated from generation to generation. In the first step of meme propagation, assimilation, the meme must be assimilated and accepted by a host through infection (exposure) and must be somewhat plausible. In the next step, retention, the meme must be retained by the host through memory. With this step meme selection occurs. Without memory, a meme is extinguished and cannot proceed to the next step, expression, when infection of another host may occur. Retention of a meme depends on the perceived usefulness, interest, and relevance to the host. The last step is transmission, the physical means by which the meme can be conveyed to the next potential host. Transmission may occur through physical gestures (hand or facial movements), speech, the spoken or written word, or pictures.

Memes that convey dictated social behavior can be categorized as either secular or theistic. According to Dawkins (1976), the god meme concept "provides a superficially plausible answer to deep and troubling questions about existence." Blackmore (1999) recognizes that religions contain memes that regulate certain behaviors, including sexual practices and some cooperative behaviors, and can modify aggression. Operationally, in most religious canons the god meme consists of a number of explicit pronouncements and commandments purportedly attributed to a god. In this study, these specific attributes and dictated behaviors are called theistic memes.

The word canon is derived from the Greek kanon, meaning "reed" or "cane,"a device used by the ancients to ensure correct measurements in masonry. The term came to signify an act of setting standards, and by the fourth century implied a list of orthodox texts (Mellor 1972). Although the term was first used to describe the Christian literature, canonization can be documented in the earliest traditions of religious texts. A process in which those exercising authority in a population select and exclude material in written texts, thus developing a non-contradictory religious canon with coherent theistic memes, has occurred since the time of the ancient Babylonians. In general, theistic meme selection is attenuated over time as the text hardens into inviolable canon. Here, religious canon is defined as consisting of theistic memes faithfully transcribed from generation to generation. In the genesis of a canon or orthodox literature, after an initial period of competing theistic memes one group eventually prevails over others. Theistic memes may mutate as accidental or intentional alterations. Accidental alterations include misspellings, deletions, or repetitions. Ehrman (1993) has categorized intentional alterations as harmonization of the text with parallel passages, elimination of grammatical errors, or the smoothing out of ambiguities. However, in some instances the author of the alterations has the sole intention of creating text to render a canon more orthodox and does this by importing biased memes or by modifying or eliminating memes with contrary or competing views.

2 First Evidence of Memes

Schmandt-Besserat (1986) described the first definitive evidence of the creation of tangible objects, or tokens, as memetic devices designed to convey ideas among fellow humans. Tokens were used widely throughout the Near East from 8000 bce onward. During this era of nascent agrarian cultures, societies required means of keeping records and indicating weights and measures to deal with the realities of increased food stores. Tokens were made from fired clay in simple geometric shapes -spheres, discs, cylinders -and used as mnemonic devices representing units of tangible goods. These tokens are the first evidence of tangible memes created to convey messages over distance and time.

Around 4000 bce, more sophisticated memes were developed as complex tokens, clay figures with inscriptions indicating some abstract idea. Complex tokens originated at about the same time and location as Sumerian writings in the form of cuneiform text, some of which have survived to this day. The oldest writing identified to date (around 3500 bce) is on a small limestone tablet excavated from the ancient city of Kish (Finegan 1979). Pictographs of a human head, hand, and foot and a threshing sledge appear on both sides of the tablets. The message inscribed is as yet undecipherable. One of the first deciphered texts on a Sumerian writing tablet describes a hero named Enmerkar who ruled the city Uruk and lamented for a world of the past in which there was no fear (Kramer 1972a, 1972b).

In those days there was no snake, there was no scorpion, there was no hyena,
There was no lion, there was no wild dog, no wolf,
There was no fear, no terror,
Man had no rival.

This, one of the oldest recorded memes discovered to date, expresses the human belief in an imagined past when man was without anxiety, without fear, and without enemies who would do him harm. These Sumerian memes, preserved in clay, were meant to be read by others and were likely understood by many succeeding generations.

3 First Theistic Memes in Religious Canons

3.1 Epic of Gilgamesh

The earliest theistic memes to pass from generation to generation over a large territorial area are those found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Tigay (1982) found the origins of the story in third millennium Sumeria; it was propagated to the old Babylonian empire (2000 bce), the Hittite and Hurrian empires in the Middle Babylonian period (1400 bce), and the Assyrian empire (700 bce). This epic in its basic form, passed as a written document on clay tablets, was most probably read to the illiterates of the population, who then passed on the story in some oral tradition. Because the story was committed to a written form and was copied faithfully by learned scribes, the epic has been preserved for thousands of years. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a remarkable collection of theistic memes vertically transmitted over the centuries as a story of human fear of death and how humans should cope with death anxiety.

Gilgamesh, after the death of his best friend, Enkidu, finds himself crying "bitterly like unto a wailing woman."For seven days and nights he weeps over his friend, not permitting his burial. Grief stricken, he becomes obsessed with the fear of death: "When I die, shall I not be like unto Enkidu?"He eventually decides that he wants to find immortality and sets out to discover the dwelling place of Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Great Flood, who will be able to tell him how to achieve eternal life.

At the edge of the sea, Gilgamesh receives advice about his quest from Siduri, the divine barmaid.

The life you pursue you shall not find,
When the gods created mankind.
Death for mankind they set aside.
Life in their own hands remaining,
As for you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
Make merry day and night.
Of each day make a feast of rejoicing,
Day and night dance and play! Let your garments be sparkling fresh,
Your head be washed; bathe in water,
Pay heed to a little one that holds your hand.
Let a spouse delight in your bosom,
For this is the task of a woman.

Gilgamesh eventually finds Utnapishtim, who recounts in detail the Great Flood, his survival, and the subsequent gift of immortality. Utnapishtim reveals the secret of the gods: at the bottom of the sea is a plant that gives eternal life. Gilgamesh departs in a boat, dives to the bottom of the sea, and retrieves the plant. But a serpent rises up from the water, smells the fragrance of the plant, and eats it. Gilgamesh weeps bitterly, but he realizes that nothing can be done to obtain immortality.

The Gilgamesh epic is a collection of ancient Near Eastern written theistic memes that expressly deal with questions about the fear of death and the afterlife. The instructions of the barmaid are a set of memes defining social strategies by which man is supposed to live his life. These memes are explicit: "The life you pursue you shall not find, / When the gods created mankind. / Death for mankind they set aside . . . / Pay heed to a little one that holds your hand. / Let a spouse delight in your bosom."

Oral traditions are believed to have preceded the written memes of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Tigay (1982) has documented the canonization of the Epic by comparing surviving clay tablets from different locales and chronological eras (Table 1). Gilgamesh, the Sumerian king, is believed to have lived around 2700 bce. Historical evidence suggests that Gilgamesh rebuilt a shrine to the god Enil at Nippur and constructed a wall at Uruk. The earliest texts concerning Gilgamesh date to 2100-2000 bce, and these were likely based on oral memes transmitted from the time of his reign. The original Sumerian tales included six non-interrelated compositions describing the true Sumerian hero king, Gilgamesh (Kramer 1972a, 1972b). The composition and meter of the tales suggest that they may have served as hymnic doxologies used in temples as part of hero worship of an ancient king. At this time Gilgamesh was considered part god. Although each tale had separate plots, three of the tales concerned Gilgamesh's fear of death and his wish to find eternal life.

Passage Change from Change to Meme mutation type

Gilg. P. i, 7/GE 1,v,28 Descended upon me Keeps descending Synonyms or words functioning similarly

/GE II, ii, 40 The populace gathered around him The populace jostles toward him

Gilg. P. vi, 14/GE II,ii,47 He did not allow Gilgamesh to enter He does not allow Gilgamesh to be brought in Different grammatical and lexical forms of the same word

Gilg. P. ii, 12/GE I, iv, 35
Wild creatures (fem)
Wild creatures (masc)

Gilg. P. ii, 16/ GE I, iv, 37 To the pure temple, abode of Anu To the pure temple, abod of Anu and Ishtar Added words or phrases

Gilg. P, i, 15, 37/GE I, v, 39; vi, 16 The mother of Gilgamesh, knowing all The mother of Gilgamesh is wise, knowing, she knows all

Gilg. P. I, 10/GE I, v, 31-34 Uruk-land was gathered about it Uruk-land stands about [it] [The land is gathered] around it, [The popula] ce [jostles] t[oward it], [The men ma]ss against it Expansion by parallelism

(Gilg. P. ii, 14-18)/(GEI,iv,36-37) Come let me lead you to Broad-marted Uruk, to the pure temple, the abode of Anu, Enkidu, arise, let me direct you to Eanna, the abode of Anu Come, let me direct you to Uruk (of?) the sheepfold, to the pure temple, the abode of Anu and Ishtar Telescoping of parallel lines

Gilg. Mi, iii, 9/GE X, ii, 16-17 Show (me) the path […] [Now], barmaid, what is the road to Utnapish[tim]?[What is] its [l]andmark! Reformulation with new idea added

Gilg. P. i, II/GE I, v, 35 The men Kiss his feet [Like a ba]by, an [in]fant, they kiss his feet

Gilg. Y.iv, 2/GE II, v, 2, 5; cf. GEH rev. vi, 12 Seven terrifying haloes a terror to people… Reformulation with meaning changed completely

Gil. P.Y.vi, 15-16/GE II, ii, 48 They grappled with each other, like champions (lit. victors)they bent the knee They grappled with each other in the gate of the marital chamber

C, I, from Gilg. P. ii, 16, 18 and GE 1, iv 37, 44 “Abode of Anu and Ishtar” “Abode of Anu” Change due to Religious Ideology: The deliberate omission of Ishtar in the Old Babylonian version is related to an antipathy toward Ishtar/Inanna’s unfavorable portrayal reflected in the Bull and Heaven episode.

Table 1: Theistic Memetic Mutations in the Gilgamesh Epic from Old Babylonian to Late Version (Adapted from Tigay 1982)

The transformation of the Sumerian tales into a religious canon began in the Old Babylonian period (2000-1600 bce). The broad memetic story line of the Sumerian tales was creatively adapted into an integrated and well-meshed text with a definitive message. The central theistic memetic message was Gilgamesh's anguish over the death of a friend, his own fear of death, and his search for immortality. The proto-theistic memes of the Sumerian tales were mutated. Enkidu changes from a servant to a friend, thereby increasing the emotional impact of his death on Gilgamesh. Added to the story were the all-important theistic memes of ancient Sumerian wisdom sayings, admonishing Gilgamesh to concentrate on his present earthly life, with a woman and children, and not to worry about immortality.

The Old Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh spread throughout the ancient Near East in the Late and Middle Babylonian period. The canon was found in the original Akkadian and translated into Hittite and Hurrian, at which point the text was subjected to contemporary editing. These textual mutations were mostly in the form of unintentional scribal errors. However, some of the redaction included grammatical and lexical changes, addition of new words or phrases, or expansion of some ideas by parallelism. Some changes in the text included the addition of new ideas and some reflected changing religious ideology (Table 1). These mutations were incorporated into the text, which thereafter became standardized canon. The theistic memetic message of the Epic was probably relevant to populations throughout the ancient Near East, as it was widely distributed and considerable effort was put into preserving the text by meticulously copying it onto tablets.

The story of the Great Flood has ancient roots. Many early texts referred to the event(s) (Table 2), and the actual flood most likely occurred in the early third millennium. Two prominent early accounts were the Sumerian Deluge and the Akkadian Atrahasis Epic. Neither was incorporated into the Old Babylonian version. However, The Atrahasis Epic continued to be transcribed as independent canon until late in the first millennium (around 1250 bce), when it was incorporated nearly verbatim into the Epic of Gilgamesh, greatly expanding the Utnapishtim flood story.

Gilgamesh Epic

Old Testament

Author

Enlil, the Sumeria god of Babylonia.

God

Reason

In (Tablet XI:14) the heart of the great gods prompted them to bring a deluge

In (Gen. 6:1-13) The earth was corrupt before God and was filled with violence because of man, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.

Hero

The Summerian account calls him Ziusudra meaning "he who laid hold on life of distant days." Other versions call him Atrahasis meaning "the exceedingly wise."

Noah meaning "rest.". (Gen. 6:9).

Announcement

Ea appears to the Utnapishtim telling him to abandon his possessions and to build a ship with certain specifications and take into it every seed of life. (Tablet XI:19-31). This revelation was made contrary to Enlil's plan and without his knowledge. (Tablet XI:173).

In(Gen7:1), God communicates with Noah. “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you

righteous in this generation.”

Period of Grace.

There was no thought of granting mankind an opportunity to repent. According to Atrahasis Epic man was granted several periods of grace before Enlil determined to destroy humankind by means of a flood.

Gen. 6:3, Man was granted period of grace one hundred and twenty years.

Ark and Dimensions

Elippu, meaning"a great vessel," "boat," "ship." Utnapishtim's boat , length height, and width were 120 cubits, seven stories.

Ark is "teba" related to the Egyptian db't

meaning, "box," "chest," "coffin."

Noah's ark was "three hundred cubits, its breath fifty cubits, and it's height thirty cubits" (Gen. 6:15). Noah's ark had 3 stories.

Occupants

Utnapishtim loaded aboard all he had of "the seed of all living creatures," " the game of the field, the beasts of the field, all the craftsmen," (Tablet XI: 80-85 and 94-95).

Gen. 6:19-21: " of every living thing, of all flesh, thou shalt bring two of every into the ark to keep them alive with thee; they shall bea male and a female. Of the birds......" " And Noah, with his sons, his wife, and the wives of his sons, went into the ark, because of the waters of the flood."

Flood Begins

Tablets silent on this point.

"In the sixth hundredth year of Noah's life , in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that very day all the fountains of the great deep (tehom) were broken open, and the windows of the heavens were opened" (Gen. 7:11).

Cause

The destructive forces listed in the Summerian tablet are amuru, meaning "rainstorm," rain flood," or "cloudburst," and mighty winds. These two elements accompanied by thunder and lightning are mentioned in the Gilgamesh Epic.

Torrential rains from the heaven and the eruption of the subterranean waters. (7:11-12).

Duration

Rained in the evening followed by a storm that lasted for six days and six nights.

For forty days and forty nights it rained upon the earth. (Gen 7:11)

Storm magnitude

"As soon as the first shimmer of the morning beamed forth, a black cloud came up from out the horizon."

" The waters increased and lifted the ark, so that it rose above the earth.....the waters grew exceedingly strong upon the earth; and all the mountains under the whole heaven were covered."

Ark Landing

Mount Nisir, " mount of Salvation."

" on one of the mountains of Ararat."

Bird Scene

Utnapishtim released a dove for testing the subsidence of the water on the seventh day after the landing at Mount Nisir.

Forty days after the tops of the mountains had become visible, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent forth a raven. (Genesis 8:5-7). Having waited seven more days, Noah released another dove, which did not come back until toward evening. (8:10-11) After another seven days, Noahsent out a third dove , but she never returned (8:12) Also this was a good sign; It showed that the lowlands as well as the mountains were free of water

Exit from the Ark

"sent forth to the four winds"

God said to Noah, "Go forth of the ark , thou and thy wife, thy sons and the wives of thy sons with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee.....and be fruitful and multiply on the earth" (8:16-17)

Sacrifice

Utnapishtim prostrated himself before the sun-god and offered up an Ox and an abundant sacrifice of sheep.

Noah built an alter unto the Lordand offered burnt-offerings "of every clean beast and of every clean fowl" (8:20).

Divine Blessings

Removal from the ken of mortal man

Man may not be slain in impunity either by man or by beast (Gen. 9:1-7)

Table 2: Theistic Memes of Flood Story in the Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament (Adapted from Heidel 1963)

3.2 Enuma elish

The Gilgamesh memes did not deal with questions about how gods and humans were created. These were recorded in a second set of written theistic memes found throughout the ancient Near East, called the Enuma elish (When above) myth. The memes incorporated in this myth likely date to the rise of the first Babylonian dynasty (1894-1595 bce) when the god Marduk was legitimized, especially under the reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 bce), the most powerful of the Babylonian kings.

The creation story opens with a description of a time when there was nothing but the divine spirits , the parental gods, Apsu and Tiamat, and their son, Mummu. Each represents cosmic matter, different forms of water (fresh water, salt water, and clouds) that mingled together and from which light emanated and the universe was made. After several generations of gods, the great wise god, Marduk, is born; he becomes supreme by slaying the evil gods and creating man. This complicated story raised as many questions as it answered. However, as a memetic device it provided "an answer"to questions about creation that endured for centuries. Ultimately, the myth became logically untenable and was abandoned, but the basic memetic structure survives to this day in the Old Testament.

	*Enuma Elish*	*Passage*	*Genesis*
Tablet VII: 86	Divine Spirit and cosmic matter are coexistent and coeternal	Gen. 1:1-2	Divine spirit creates cosmic matter and exists independently of it
Tablet VI: 23-30	Primeval chaos; Tiamat enveloped in darkness	Gen. 1:2	The earth a desolate waste, with darkness covering the deep(tehom)
Tablet I: 38	Light emanating from the gods	Gen. 1:3	Light created
Tablet I: 59-72	The creation of the firmament	Gen. 1:6	The creation of the firmament
Tablets IV: 143-45	The creation of the dry land	Gen. 1:9	The creation of dry land
Tablet V: 1	The creation of the luminaries	Gen. 1:14-18	The creation of the luminaries
Tablet VI: 1-38	The creation of man	Gen. 1:26	The creation of man
Tablet VII	The gods rest and celebrate	Gen. 2:2	God rests and sanctifies the seventh day

Table 3: Theistic Memetic Structures in Enuma Elish Creation Myth and Old Testament Genesis (Adapted from: Heidel 1963)

A superficial comparison of the Hebrew Genesis and the Babylonian Enuma elish might suggest the two stories are different in style, complexity, logic, and maturity. However, Heidel (1942) demonstrated that when the internal memetic structures (story lines) are outlined, they prove to be identical (Table 3). The memetic influences of the Enuma elish were also found to have influenced the Canaanite population, with the creation of Baal paralleling the genesis of Marduk. This parallelism is also evident in the stories that deal with the struggles of Tiamat and the struggles of Yahweh in slaying the primordial evil monsters. These two texts are likely memetic homologues.

When thou shalt smite Lotan, the fleeing serpent, And shalt put an end to the tortuous serpent, Shalyat of the seven heads.

(Ras Sharma Tablets)

On that day the Lord will punish with His sword, which is hard and great and strong, Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan, the tortuous serpent, And He will slay the crocodile that is in the sea.

(Isa. 27:1)

And theistic memes as hymns of praise for Baal were most likely memetically mutated in form and context to become Psalms for the Hebrew God, Yahweh.

Behold, thine enemies, O Baal;
Behold, thine enemies thous shalt smite.
Behold, thou shalt destroy thine adversaries.

(Ras Sharma Tablets)

For, behold, thine enemies, O Lord,
For, behold, thine enemies shall perish!
All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered!

(Ps. 92:10)

3.3 Law Codes

The third widely distributed written tradition of memes passed from generation to generation in ancient Near Eastern cultures consisted of sets of law codes. Some codes date to the Sumerian period, the laws of Ur-Nammu (2112-2095 bce). Not all the Ur-Nammu law codes were preserved, and the number and subject and the punishments decreed by the king cannot be known.

The law code memes were presented as divinely inspired and were preceded by a prologue establishing the authority of the king and his relationship to the gods. Thus the laws had a basis and a credibility in the population as enforced by the gods. These are therefore theistic memes. An epilogue details punishments for those who chose to disobey or deface the inscribed codes. In the code of Hammurabi, the chief god, Enlil, proclaims

When lofty Anum, king of the Anunnaki, and Enlil, lord of heaven and earth, the determiner of the destinies of the land, determined for Marduk, the first-born of Enki, the Enlil functions over all mankind, made him great among the Igigi, called Babylon by its exalted name, made it supreme in the world, established for him in its midst an enduring kingship, whose foundations are as firm as heaven and earth--at that time Anum and Enil named me to promote the welfare of the people, me Hammurabi, the devout, god-fearing prince, to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, that the strong might not oppress the weak, to rise like the sun over the black-headed people and to light up the land.

The memetic law codes of Eshnunna and Hammurabi were directly incorporated into the Covenant codes of the Torah (Mellor 1972, Patrick 1985). Mellor (1972) has noted some thirty-five to fifty Covenant memetic codes that are directly related to the Hammurabi memetic codes. Finkelstein (1981) has provided convincing evidence of direct meme transfer from Near Eastern codes to the Hebrew laws dealing with the issue of the goring ox. Early agricultural populations depended on oxen for heavy labor. The ox, although useful for many tasks, was also unpredictable and capable of inflicting injury by goring its owner or others. The people of the ancient Near East understood that some oxen were prone to goring innocent bystanders and that the owners of these oxen should be aware of this and should take appropriate protective measures. Owners who did not do so were guilty of "culpable negligence," a concept that ancient Near Eastern populations thought worthy of setting into theistic memetic laws to be passed from generation to generation. These laws are notably found in three codes, the Eshnunna, the Hammurabi, and the Covenant.

Oxen memetic laws of Eshnunna, 1850 bce:

If an ox has gored another ox and caused its death, the owners of the oxen shall divide between them the sale value of the living ox and the carcass of the dead ox.
If an ox was a habitual gorer, the local authorities having so duly notified its owner, yet he did not keep his ox in check and it then gored a man and caused his death, the owner of the ox shall pay two thirds of a mina of silver to the survivors of the victim.
If it gored a slave and caused his death, he shall pay fifteen shekels of silver.

Oxen memetic laws of Hammurabi, 1792-1750 bce:

If an ox, while walking along the street, gored a person and caused his death, no claims will be allowed in that case.
But if someone's ox was a habitual gorer, the local authority having notified him that it was a habitual gorer, yet he did not have its horns screened nor kept his under control, and that ox then gored a free-born man to death, he must pay one-half mina of silver.
If the victim was someone's slave, he shall pay one-third mina of silver to the slave's owner.

Oxen memetic laws in Covenant code (Exod. 21:28-32), 1200-1000 bce:

If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned to death, its flesh may not be eaten, but the owner of the ox is innocent.
But if the ox was previously reputed to have had the propensity to gore, its owner having been so warned, yet he did not keep it under control, so that it then killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned to death, and its owner shall be put to death as well. Should a ransom be imposed upon him, however, he shall pay as the redemption for his life as much as is assessed upon him.
If the ox gore a slave or slavewoman, he must pay thirty shekels of silver to his owner, but the ox shall be stoned to death.
If an ox belonging to one man gores to death the ox of his fellow, they shall sell the live ox and divide the proceeds, and they shall divide the dead one as well.
But if the ox was previously reputed to have had the propensity to gore, and its owner had not kept it under control, he shall make good ox for ox, but will keep the dead one for himself.

The interrelationships among these texts are unmistakable. Given the identical memetic expressions and situations, it is highly likely that the laws of Eshnunna and Hammurabi were directly related to or drew upon the same prototypical material. The Hebrew writers likewise undoubtedly knew of the culpable negligence meme and the written Mesopotamian memetic codes, those concerning oxen in particular, when mutating these laws to craft the Covenant code.

4 Theistic Memetic Creation of the Hebrew Canon

Table 4: Old Testament Selection of Ancient Near Eastern Memes

A number of theistic memes taken from Mesopotamian canon and other traditions were selected and incorporated into the Hebrew canon, the Pentateuch (Table 4). The advice of the Siduri to Gilgamesh found in Tablet X of the Old Babylonian version is incorporated into Ecclesiastes 9:7-11 as:

Go then eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works.
Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head.
Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.

(Segal in press)

Hamblin (1987) has described what may be the oldest memetic story, Adam in the Garden of Eden (probably of pre-Sumerian in origin), as representing man's transition from hunter-gather to agriculturist some 7000 years ago. The terms Adam and Eden have been found in cuneiform texts from early Sumerian times and even the earlier Ubedian period. Eden means fertile plain; Adam means settlement on the plain. God's banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden has been proposed to represent humans' choice of a life of husbandry and agriculture over their earlier, God-ordained life as hunter-gatherers, thus going against "God's will." The "original sin" may in fact have been the choice to grow our own food. The serpent that presents the gift of knowledge is no doubt a memetic mutation of the sea serpent that steals the immortality-giving plant in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Also taken from the Epic of Gilgamesh (previously the Atrahasis epic) is the theistic meme of the flood story; importantly, Noah becomes the memetic figure Utnapishtim. Heidel (1970) has shown the remarkable and unmistakable parallels between these two stories, including the characters, the ark, and the sequence of events (Table 2). Another likely theistic meme taken from the Epic of Gilgamesh and incorporated into the Genesis canon is the concept of a man's life companion. The author of the Epic chose a man, Enkidu, for Gilgamesh's companion. The author of the Hebrew Genesis mutated this memetic concept such that a woman becomes a man's life companion.

Of great importance to the Torah is the story of Moses. His early life in the Egyptian court is recounted in detail in Exodus. However, the story of a foundling who is rejected, exposed to danger, and found and nurtured and then grows to adulthood to achieve greatness was a literary meme first used to describe the early life of Sargon of Akkad (2371-2316 bce) (Table 4). Sargon was one of the first great conquerors of history. As Finegan (1979) recounts the legend, Sargon's mother puts him in a basket made of rushes and floats it down a river. The boy is pulled out of the water by a woman named Akki, who raises him in the court of the king Ur-Zababa. Sargon breaks away and establishes his own kingship, eventually capturing and uniting the Sumerian and Akkadian kingdoms. Childs (1965) has pointed out that Sargon of Akkad initiated the foundling child legal principles, articulated in the earliest of the ancient Near Eastern law codes and later incorporated into the Old Testament. These principles included statements of (a) the individual involved, (b) length of time designated by the contract, (c) condition of work, (d) specifications about nourishment, (e) fines for breach of contract, (f) amount of wages, and (g) witnesses. The narrative of the Moses foundling story incorporates these ancient Near Eastern legal memes (except for the breach of contract clause) in this order.

Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son.

(Exod. 2:7-10)

The Hebrew writers were not unlike the ancient Near Eastern authors of the Epic of Gilgamesh, who understood that a text could be revised and reinterpreted to edify and reconcile new historical and theological events. The Hebrews' examination and probing of these new events to find relevant precedence was called midrash. Midrash was employed in the development of new text as a creative inspiration based on a knowledge of previous texts and traditions (Goulder 1974). Midrashic activity was rationalized by the Hebrew belief that one passage could be used to illuminate another, whether a simple or a complex passage. Deuteronomy is essentially a midrash of the Covenant code; Chronicles is a midrash of Kings. Thus in essence, midrash was the process of theistic memetic mutation that allowed a successful meme to be varied and incorporated into new text. If a new text was accepted as canon, the incorporated, mutated theistic memes could (and frequently did) affect reproductive fitness. Thus the Hebrew literature is an interwoven fabric of theistic memetic historical facts, traditions, beliefs, and rituals. These texts were often related to others by midrash, or the incorporation of theistic memetic mutations.

The overriding Hebrew theistic meme was that all humans are created in God's image and thus all are created equal (Dimont 1962, Johnson 1988). This theistic meme was distinct and unique in ancient Near Eastern traditions because of its emphasis on human life and the rights of individual believers -a concept that contrasted with other contemporary cultures in which property rights and the rights of royalty were paramount. In the goring oxen memes of the Hebrews, the emphasis on punishment conveyed the importance of human life, whereas in the analogous Babylonian culpable negligence memes the emphasis was on property rights.

The fully developed Jewish text of laws, the Torah or Pentateuch, in its complete form consists of 613 theistic memes, faithfully preserved to this day (Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971). These theistic memes accrued over a number of centuries to cover a vast array of codes of conduct defining behavior and beliefs. The codes were interpreted literally, without a well-defined belief in the afterlife, until the first century bce, when several sects developed alternative memes about how the law could be reinterpreted.

Jewish religious canon evolved in three distinct phases, the Covenant code (1200-1000 bce), as discussed above, the Deuteronomic code (700-621 bce), and the Holiness code (587-450 bce). The Deuteronomic code was likely developed in the century before its fabled discovery in the Jerusalem temple during Josiah's reign (621 bce). The Deuteronomic laws were intended to further restate and redefine Hebrew monotheism and to rid the religion of foreign influences by actively repudiating the customs and practices of the Canaanites and the Egyptians. The Canaanite civilization was eventually subjugated, with the land and people incorporated into the Hebrew state. Some of the religious practices of the Canaanites were incorporated into the religious beliefs of the Hebrews, such as worship of the Canaanite gods and the practice of child sacrifice. The Deuteronomic code amply documents later Hebrew writers'attempts to repudiate these Canaanite cultic practices related to child sacrifice, fertility, and religious prostitution.

You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God, for every abominable act which the Lord hates they [the Canaanites] have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

(Deut. 12:31)

When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you [Canaan], you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer.

(Deut. 18:9-10)

Child sacrifice must have markedly reduced the fitness of the Canaanites. This behavior was clearly "imitated" by the Hebrews and would have markedly reduced their fitness as well.

They [the Israelites] did not destroy the peoples, as the Lord commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and learned their practices, and served their idols, which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.

(Ps. 106:34-37)

The Hebrew practice was later seen as an "abomination" in the eyes of God: "They [Israelites] built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of Ben-hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech"(Jer. 32:35). King Josiah destroyed this child sacrificial alter, called a Topheth: "[King Josiah] also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might pass his son or his daughter through the fire for Molech"(2 Kings 23:10). And Jeremiah (7:30-32) records,

For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight declares the lord, they have set their detestable things in the house which is called by My name to defile it. They have built the high places of Topeth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind. Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topeth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topeth because there is no other place.

Ultimately, Jewish fitness was enhanced by the absolute prohibition against child sacrifice. No religious practice, except suicide and prohibition against heterosexual sex, could limit fitness more. Human child sacrifice must be a non-genetically driven behavior, a practice dictated by religious mandate. Development of a genetically driven human behavior that would waste such an extraordinary amount of parental investment is improbable. The practice probably evolved as a phenomenon of self-awareness that imagined a vengeful god who would unleash the most horrible of unknowns if not appeased with the ultimate sacrifice -one's own child. The meaning of the story of Abraham and Isaac has baffled many. How could any father be so willing to sacrifice his own son, even if asked by God? However, in the times of the ancient Near Eastern Canaanites and Israelites, sacrifice of a child was the only way to truly gain favor and to spare the wrath of God. As Maccoby (1982) concludes,

Perhaps the most interesting story [about human sacrifice], however, is the story of Abraham and Isaac, for here we find not complete transformation, made from an anti human-sacrificial stand-point, but a phase transition, in which the yearning for human sacrifice is still struggling with the desire to abolish it. The purpose of the story is to show that God Himself ordained that animal sacrifice should be substituted for human sacrifice. At the same time, the story contains no moral revulsion from the very idea of human sacrifice. On the contrary, it is imputed to Abraham as extraordinary merit that he was willing to sacrifice his favourite son, Isaac, at the behest of God. We see here the dynamics of the historic move from human to animal sacrifice: on the one hand, this is a revolutionary step, by which a higher morality is brought into effect; on the other, the benefits of human sacrifice cannot be lightly relinquished, and the transition from human to animal sacrifice must appear plausible in the sense that animal sacrifice must acquire the same aura of reverence and holiness that previously belonged to human sacrifice.

In effect, the story of Abraham and Isaac represents a transition of the Hebrews to a more fit religious population through the memetic mutation of their religious canon to exclude the fitness-reducing practice of child sacrifice.

After the Babylonian exile, the Hebrew canon was further infused with fitness-enhancing memes that came to be known as the Holiness code. The overall effect of the Holiness code was to make the Hebrew population more a religious community than a nation-state. Although many of the theistic memes were related to ritual and sacrifice, a substantial number were direct and explicit sexual prohibitions. Many Canaanite sexual practices (incest, bestiality, and prostitution) were detrimental to maintaining the nuclear family and most likely contributed to the population's decline in fitness. In contrast, the Holiness code prohibited incest, with the most inclusive set of theistic memes to counter consanguinity. Laws also prohibited adultery, homosexual sex, and bestiality. These Jewish theistic memetic laws greatly enhanced fitness and were enforced by the most explicit (attributed to God) theistic memetic punishments.

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. That the land spew not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.

(Lev. 18:24, 25, 28-30)

Here, human behaviors are dictated not by genes but by mental constructs backed up by another mental construct, the fear of God.

At the core of the fitness-enhancing Jewish canon are other unique theistic memes that allowed all individuals of the religious population to exercise and to be governed by the same behavioral memes. Collectively, the newly constituted theistic memes, as the Laws of Israel, facilitated the reproductive success of the entire population. Jewish theistic memes provided more credible answers than did other Near Eastern genesis stories to self-awareness questions such as: Where did I come from? Who is God? What happens when I die? When my family dies? Is there life after death? On this platform of increased credibility were established other theistic memes that facilitated reproductive success. Decreasing conflict among individuals was chief among the effects of these memes. The Hebrew God commanded, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt not in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord" (Lev. 17,18). The overall strategy had clearly shifted to cooperation for the whole population. Other theistic memes stabilized the nuclear family through strict laws on obedience to and respect for one's parents and the maintenance of the family through strict observance of religious ritual. Other remarkable theistic memes in the Jewish canon promoted the reproductive success and fitness of the population. The Law states that Jewish men and woman should marry and that as husband and wife they should have children.

5 Theistic Memetic Mutation in Creation of the Christian Canon

The Sadducees were an authoritarian group of Jewish priests and the well-to-do who proposed that all Law was to be written and that a strict and literal adherence to the Law was necessary to be holy and to be a Jew. The Law was not to be changed; it was fixed for all time. Because the Torah contained few specific memes regarding an afterlife, the Sadducees ignored the subject. In contrast, the Pharisees embraced the idea of an apocalypse and an afterlife, as recounted by Isaiah, and the concept that those who had fulfilled the Law and were denied compensation in this earthly life would be compensated in the next. The Pharisees proposed that if a person could not fulfill the Law literally because of penury or physical circumstances, then executing the spirit of the Law was sufficient. The Essenes were an ascetic sect on the fringes of Jewish society. They believed in resurrection, immortality of the soul, and a messiah who would lead the way to immortal salvation. The wicked would be punished in hell and the good would live with God in heaven. The Essenes developed elaborate purification rites, including baptism, in which new members were admitted into a "New Covenant"with the remission of sins. The messiah, the "Teacher of Righteousness,"preached penitence, poverty, and love of one's neighbors. In this Jewish Essene church, the essential rite was the sacred meal. The Essenes believed in celibacy, yet permitted marriage. Most new members were adopted from other sects and indoctrinated in the faith.

A fourth Jewish sect was the Christians (Johnson 1988). Jesus of Nazareth, baptized by John the Baptist, an Essene, radically changed the interpretation of the Law: no longer were the historical context and roots of the Law important. Fulfillment of the Law, in fact, was comparable only to good works -just a precondition for eternal salvation. Salvation itself depended on faith and belief in Jesus as the Son of God, the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Jewish messiah.

The theistic memes concerning Jesus Christ were that (a) he was the Jewish messiah, (b) he was crucified, and (c) he rose from the dead. The initial community that embraced Jesus as the new Messiah was Jewish and based in Jerusalem. Distinguishing the growth of this church from other Jewish sects were memes that would be spread by a few gentile believers in Antioch. In a momentous decision by the ruling council of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, gentiles were accepted into the faith without having to fulfill the initiation requirements to become a Jew (Acts 15; all references to the New Testament are to the Revised Standard Version.). Thus the uncircumcised gentile and the observant Jew were equal members in this new religion. Because the religion was so appealing to pagans in the Hellenized world and to the diasporic Jews, many became converts. Soon the vast majority of Christians were gentiles and, when the Jerusalem temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 ce, all formal links to Judaism were severed. However, the Christian church was always to retain the central theistic meme, the belief in the God of Israel.

The Christians kept the theistic memes associated with the Hebrew God, Yahweh, as creator of the universe, earth, and humanity. In Matthew 5:17-20, Christ teaches his disciples:

Think not that I have come to abolish the law, or the prophets: I am not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say unto you, untill heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of theses commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, For I tell you, unless your righteous exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Also retained were the theistic memes detailing Israelite history and the interpretations of this history by the Israelite God. These included the history of Moses and the giving of the Law and the history of the prophets and the kings. From the large amount of Jewish memetic law, the Christians appropriated the memes related to human equality and equal justice; theistic memes restricting holiness to those who could provide the elaborate, sacrificial rituals were selectively minimized. In Matthew 23:23 Christ expounds, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spice-minth, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former."

Thus the theistic memes to be embraced and acted upon in order to achieve holiness were reduced in number, simplified, and in effect made available to any individual. The Christian theistic memes included behavior commandments attributed to Jesus (You must love your fellow human as yourself) and to his proselytizers. The Lord's prayer is a central Christian theistic meme, which appeals to the Jewish God, our Father, with adoration; the will of God is accepted, with a request for the basic necessities of life and a plea for forgiveness and the promise to forgive. Many Christian religions were to evolve from the initial followers of Christ in Jerusalem. The Church of Rome, the Byzantine or Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Protestant Church are some of the major Christian populations that adopted mutant theistic memes dealing with differences in beliefs, rituals, and behaviors.

Spong (1996) has catalogued the same process of theistic memetic mutation (midrash) in the development of Christian canon. The Gospel writers, in attempting to legitimize the new Jewish messiah, used the midrashic technique to ground Christ firmly in the prophecies and traditions of the Scriptures, or Old Testament. Many examples are evident (Table 5). Christian midrash also included the alteration of existing Gospel texts by later Gospel authors to harmonize and further legitimize Christ. The earliest written Synoptic Gospel was that of Mark. In writing of the parentage of Jesus, Mark does not mention an earthly father, referring to Jesus thus: "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary" (Mark 6:3). The lack of any reference to a father in any part of this Gospel would have opened Jesus to charges of being born a bastard. For Jews who considered Jesus the messiah this would have been a major obstacle: "A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord" (Deut. 23:2). The modifications or mutations made by Matthew when he copied Mark's text are obvious and transparent. When Matthew incorporated Mark's text on the parentage of Jesus, the text is transformed from "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary" into "Is not this the carpenter's son, whose Mother is called Mary" (Matt. 13:55). Thus, in this remarkable mutation of a theistic meme, Joseph is created as Jesus' father.

*Crucifixion*
Passage	Old Testament Verse	Passage	New Testament Verse	Significance
Psalm 22 :1	My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?’	Mark 15 :34 Matt. 27 :46	‘And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "E'lo-I, E'lo-i, la'ma Sabach-tha'ni?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"’ ‘And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, la'ma sabach-tha'ni?" that is, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"’	Midrashic description of the crucifixion based on Psalm 22. Nearly every element of the Psalm is used to depict the crucifixion seen. Here the cry, "My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me has been lifted word for word from the Psalm.
Psalm 22 :7-8	‘All who see me mock at me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads; "He committed his cause to the LORD; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"’	Mark 15: 29 Matt. 27 :43	‘And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days,’ ‘He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, "I am the Son of God."’	Here the concept of some one divine in dire consequences mocked by others to save himself has been copied and mutated from Psalm 22.
Psalm 22 :17	‘I can count all my bones--they stare and gloat over me;’	John 19 :32-36	‘So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.’ … ‘For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of him shall be broken."’	Jesus, who had come to symbolize the perfect sacrifice as the paschal lamb, had to be physically perfect as an offering and could not have any broken bones.
Psalm 22 :15	‘ my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; thou dost lay me in the dust of death.’	John 19 :28	‘After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), "I thirst."’	The theme of thirst is continued to parallel Psalm 22.
Psalm 22 :18	‘they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots.’	John 19 :23-24	‘When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took his garments and made four parts, one for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was without seam, woven from top to bottom; so they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be." This was to fulfil the scripture, "They parted my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots."’	The text of Psalm 22 is further developed with the division of clothes and the casting of lots. The symmetries among the stories is now complete
*Virgin Birth*
Psalms 2 :7	‘I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my son, today I have begotten you.’	Romans 1 :4	‘and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,’	The earliest of scriptural writings from Paul which designate Jesus as God’s son, a title that had been used for the Kings of Israel
Isiaiah 7:14	Behold a young woman shall conceive and shall bring forth a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God is with us.	Matt 1:23	Behold a virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God is with us.	Midrashic use of Isaiah 7:14 by Matthew to signify Jesus’ virgin birth. Matthew did not realize that he had copied from a Greek translation that had improperly used "virgin" for "young woman".
Isaiah 42 :1	‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations.’	Mark 1 :11	‘and a voice came from heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased."’	The use of Midrash by Mark to signify the inauguration of Christ’s as the "Son of God" to occur at his baptism
Psalm 110 :4	‘The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchiz'edek."’	Hebrew 7:1, 17	‘For this Melchiz'edek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him;’ ‘The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchiz'edek."’	Because Jesus was not part of the recognized priesthood, a Midrashic attempt was made to link Jesus with another scriptural figure who was not of the regular Jewish priesthood, Melchizedek.
*Passion*
Zechariah 9:9-11	‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass.	Matt 21:7-9	And [the disciples] brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him theron….And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying Who is this? And the multitude said, this is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.	Misdrashic interpretation of Zechariah’s account of the King entering Jerusalmem. The story was muted to convey the entry of Jesus in the Holy City.
Zechariah 14:21	‘and every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the flesh of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.’	Matt 21:12-13	And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.	Another story from Zechariah that was modified to convey the idea that Jesus had cast out the moneychangers and cleansed the temple.
*Judas*
Zechariah 11 :13	Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them" So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord..	Matt. 27 :3-7	‘When Judas, his betrayer, saw that he was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood." … And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; ..And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers.	Lifting of the story from Zechariah, with acknowledgement, of thirty pieces of silver to be used for the burial plot for the poor.
Psalms 41:9	‘ Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me.’	John 13 :26	‘Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.’	The Midrashic use of the story from Psalm 41 of betrayal during the act of eating.
2 Samuel 20: 9-10	"And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him, But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand; so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground,..and he died.	Mark 14 :44, 45	‘Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I shall kiss is the man; seize him and lead him away under guard." And when he came, he went up to him at once, and said, "Master!" And he… kissed him.’	The act of giving a kiss to signify an act of betrayal lifted from 2 Samuel is used to further flesh out the story of Judas.

Table 5: Theistic Memetic Mutation Old Testament to New Testament (Spong 1996)

In another remarkable theistic memetic mutation, Matthew wishes to anchor the story of Jesus' divine birth in midrash. He chose a passage from a Greek translation of Isaiah 7:14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel, which means `God is with us.'" Matthew did not realize or chose to ignore that the word virgin had been mistranslated from the original Hebrew text. Properly translated the Isaiah verse reads, "Behold a young woman shall conceive and shall bring forth a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel, which means `God is with us.'" Thus, the virgin birth story, like the story of Joseph as father, was the creation of a mutated theistic meme. Other examples of extensive midrashic alteration of texts are found in the depiction of the crucifixion, the story of Judas, and the Passion (Table 5).

In a study of the chronological relationships and textual criticisms of early Christian religious texts, Ehrman (1993) has revealed interrelationships and internal corruptions that demonstrate a remarkable selection process leading toward a uniform and non-contradictory religious canon. The confusion created with Jesus' virgin birth and the question of the nature and timing of his divinity led to the development of a number of mutant theistic memes. All Christians believed that Christ was the Son of God. But what did this mean? New "Christians" wondered, "Was he born God or did he become God at his baptism or did he become God at his crucifixion and death?" Some early Christians believed that Christ was born a man then was "adopted" by God at the time of his baptism and became divine.

Anti-adoptionist theistic mutations by scribes wishing to embrace the orthodox position focused on several key issues in Jesus' life and ministry. The anti-adoptionists wished to support the belief of a divinely inspired virgin birth and to minimize any suggestion that Jesus had a real father (Table 6). In nearly every theistic meme originally written to convey that Joseph was Jesus' father, the text was mutated to enforce the emerging orthodox position that Christ was the Son of God and born of a virgin.

Passage	Change from		Change to	Significance
*Anti-Adoptionist*
Luke 2:33, 48 Luke 2:43 Luke 2:48	"father and mother began to marvel" "his parents" "Look your father and I have been grieved, searching for you."		"Joseph and his mother began to marvel." "Joseph and his mother" " Your relatives and I have been grieved, searching ….."	Jesus the unique Son of God. Orthodox affirmation of the Virgin Birth and that Joseph was in fact not Jesus' father.
Luke 3:22,/ Mark 1:11	"You are my Son, today I have begotten you"		"You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased."	Orthodox opposition to an adopted Jesus. Supports the view that Jesus was the Son of God at birth.
Mark 1:1	." "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."		"The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God	Added corruption that supports the orthodox view that Jesus was the Son of God at birth.
*Anti-Separationist*
Mark 1:11/Luke 3:22/Matthew 3:16	" the spirit as a dove descending unto him"		"the spirit as a dove upon him"	Jesus, the Christ at His baptism. Divinity of Jesus at his baptism.
Mark 15:34	"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"		" My God, my God why have you reviled me."	Jesus not left behind as the crucified Christ is resurrected. Text harmonized with Psalm 22.
Hebrews 2:9	"that he apart from God should taste death for every man"		"that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man."	An orthodox corruption to obscure an interpretation that Christ did not die on the cross
*Anti-Docetic*
Luke 22:19-20		"And taking bread, giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, This is my body. But behold, the hand of the one who betrays me is with me on the table"	"And taking bread, giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to theme saying, This is my body that is given for you. Do this in my remembrance. And likewise after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood that is poured out for you. But behold, the hand of the one who betrays me is with me on the table"	Orthodox interpolation that Christ died for atonement of sins and that real blood was shed for the sins of the world to affirm the reality of his body at the time of the crucifixion.
Luke 22:43-44		Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow.	Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow.	Orthodox interpolation that counters the docetic belief that Christ could not suffer and was not a human of true flesh and blood.
Luke 24: 111-12		"And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not"	"And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at the which was to come to pass."	Orthodox interpolation that Christ’s literal body had been raised from the dead and this was recognized by the chief disciple and was not a silly tale by hysterical women.

Table 6: Theistic Memetic Mutations in Early Christian Canon (Ehrman 1993)

Marcion of Pontus (second century ce) was the son of an orthodox bishop of the church of Sinope. After disagreements with his father about church doctrine, he was forced to leave the church. He eventually became a wealthy ship owner and once again tried to influence the church. This time he went to Rome and, after making a large donation to the Church, attempted to establish a dominant Christian canon. Marcion seized upon the writings of Paul as a rejection of Jewish Law and scripture, and he proposed a canon consisting of Pauline letters with Luke's gospel, purged of Hebrew scriptural references. So complete was the rejection of the Jewish God that Marcion believed Christ was not descended from the Old Testament creator god but was sent by a "stranger" god. Since Christ was not of the Creator God, he could not have been born and thus could not have been a flesh-and-blood human being. Marcion's views thus expressed the basic tenets of Gnosticism. When presented to a council of the Church of Rome, his work was squarely rejected and his donation was returned; he was again excommunicated. Undaunted, Marcion traveled through Asia Minor, where his message and canon were well received. His movement was so successful throughout the Mediterranean region that the Church was provoked to combat the perceived heresy. In reaction to Marcion's teachings and "canon," the Church of Rome convened councils to formulate an "orthodox" canon. The formulation of this canon again involved a conscious "corruption" or mutation of theistic memes in accepted religious texts: the Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke, John), Acts, and the Letters of Paul. These mutations countered other interpretations, both anti-adoptionist and Gnostic, from rival churches.

Gnostics believed that Jesus the man and Christ the divine were not the same. Two basic arguments defined Gnosticism. The Docetics believed Christ was always divine and only assumed the semblance of a man while on earth. To counter the Docetics, orthodox scribes inserted passages in the early canon that made Jesus appear as a man of real flesh and blood (Table 6). The Separationists, the Gnostic majority, believed the divine Christ descended from heaven to inhabit the human being called Jesus at his baptism and gave the saving knowledge (gnosis) during Jesus' ministry; being only a temporal inhabitant, the divine Christ left Jesus' body at the crucifixion. To counter this perceived heresy, orthodox scribes mutated text that suggested Jesus and Christ were separate before his baptism or before his death on the cross (Table 6). These variants were selected and eventually would prevail, establishing the orthodox view. Each variant interpretation had profound effects on the final canon. The Christ embodied in orthodox canon was born divine of a virgin birth; he was both God and a man during his ministry; and after crucifixion his body was resurrected.

6 Theistic Memetic Mutation in Creation of the Islamic Canon

The basic Islamic theistic memes are present in the Qur'an, as given by the Prophet Muhammad in a series of revelations by God over a period of ten years (622-632 ce). Like Jesus, Muhammad was reinterpreting the Jewish Torah and its laws (theistic memes) for his people. But unlike Christ, Muhammad was not a Jew. Although Muhammad knew and respected the "People of the Book," he formulated for the Arabs a monotheistic religion with altered Jewish theistic memes. He claimed the god of the Jews for his religion and Abraham as the first true believer. Any theistic memes attributed to other prophets (including Moses and Christ) that Muhammad did not like were deemed false and discarded. The revelations to Muhammad were eventually transcribed as written theistic memes in the Qur'an - the indisputable and authoritative source for all future followers.

The five structural theistic memes essential to the faith of Muslims are (a) the shahada, a public profession of faith: "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of God"; (b) the salat, the performance of a ritual prayer; (c) the zakat, obligatory alms; (d) sawm, fasting during the month of Ramadan; and (e) the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca. These obligatory behaviors are the Pillars of Islam. The Qur'an is the undisputed word of God, and all believers are referred to this source for any questions about appropriate rituals and behaviors. If the memes in the Qur'an are silent or ambiguous on a particular topic, the memes in the hadiths, the sayings or reported sayings of Muhammad (collected in the Sunna), are consulted. If the hadiths are contradictory, the memetic laws of Islamic jurists (the ijma) are used to produce uniform behavior. Examples of the Prophet's sayings in the hadiths include

Every Muslim has six obligations toward his fellow Muslim: he greets him whenever they meet; answers his call; wishes him well when he sneezes; visits him when he is ill; follow in his funeral when he dies; and wishes for him what he wishes for himself.
The strong man is not the one who knocks people down; the truly strong man is the one who can control himself in anger.
God has no mercy for those who have no mercy for their fellow men.

These Islamic theistic memes, directly related to those of the Old Testament, prescribe how individuals should treat each other. They are in effect Islam's Golden Rules of behavior.

In contrast to what we know about the Old and New Testaments, our knowledge about the canonization of the word of God according to Muhammad is remarkably complete. God reportedly revealed his words directly to Muhammad. The verses and phrases were recorded on separate pieces of bone and parchment and, at Muhammad's death (610 ce), three successive caliphs gathered, compiled, and authenticated the text. The Caliph Uthman (644-656 ce) proclaimed an official version of the Qur'an, and all others were deemed false and ordered destroyed. This contrasts with Hebrew and Christian authors spending centuries composing and editing their theistic memes. For the Qur'an, no period was allowed for harmonization of the text. Because only one edition was allowed, tampering with the text was impossible. Thus the Qur'an was "orthodox" from its beginnings; there is no evidence of processes to "corrupt" or mutate the text. However, because the Qur'an was compiled from the unedited recorded sayings of the Prophet and in a relatively short period by one author, inconsistencies would be expected and indeed are present. The most conspicuous inconsistency is the reference to other deities -in conflict with the monotheism so prominently expounded upon later in the text. These deities, al-Lat, al-'Uzza, and Manat, were goddesses present in contemporary religious culture. Because no alteration of the text has been allowed, this glaring inconsistency remains in the Qur'an, creating an unharmonized set of theistic memes.

Perhaps those who constructed the Islamic canon, who must have witnessed the difficulties encountered in formation of the Christian canon, ensured that no such tampering could occur with the Qur'an.

7 Discussion

Religious ideas, concepts, and dictated behaviors, referred to here as theistic memes, have a historical context in the written record beginning about five thousand years ago. Memes have been proposed to vary and undergo selection. The examples provided in this paper show that theistic memes, studied chronologically, have been transmitted from generation to generation (vertical transmission), have varied, and with time have been selected and incorporated into a number of different religious texts. The proposed underlying mechanism for the successful incorporation of a selected theistic meme and its successful propagation in a religious canon is the ability of that meme to enhance human fitness.

A study of the evolution of the Epic of Gilgamesh shows how fitness-enhancing memes were progressively incorporated into the canon. In the Sumerian tales, creative scribes infused mutant theistic memes into fanciful stories with little message. The author(s) of the Epic took a story that primarily focused on the hero-god himself and transformed the focus into a message about death and the afterlife. They created the first-known recorded theistic memes that directly affected reproductive success by promoting marriage and family ("Pay heed to a little one that holds your hand. / Let a spouse delight in your bosom") and reducing death anxiety (life should be lived for the moment, not in obsessive thoughts of death and the afterlife).

If theistic memes randomly varied, some would, by chance, be fitness minimizing; incorporated into a canon and taken as rules for behavior, these could lead to extinction of a population. The American Shakers are a most notable example of this phenomenon. This Christian sect adopted the fitness-minimizing theistic meme of celibacy. The sect was otherwise not unlike the Quakers of that era, who believed in religious equality of the sexes, a pending apocalypse, and condemnation of established religious hierarchies. Shakers migrated to America in the nineteenth century, and one of these immigrants, Ann Lee, organized the sect into a group of interrelated churches throughout New England. In response to attacks on the religion by the press, the sect adopted a written code of uniform behavior, the Millennial Laws (Shakers 1848), which formalized beliefs and practices for its members and helped define the religion for the general public. The distinctive behavior codified in these Laws was celibacy and separation of the sexes. In Chapter II, the "Principles of the Church of Christ, as revealed to practice in the United Society" list the seven moral duties of the Believer: ". Duty to God 2. Duty to man 3. Separation from the world 4. Practical peace 5. Simplicity of language 6. Right use of property 7. A virgin life." Paragraph 48 of the seventh moral duty reads,

A virgin life, therefore, means a life of purity, a life undefiled with sinful indulgences, unmixed practices, unadulterated with carnal gratifications and impure desires and pursuits. But the sense to which we immediately confine it, and indeed which is the most obvious, is to express a life of continency, or a life of abstinence from carnal gratifications of the flesh, from sexual coition, and from all lascivious indulgences.

In paragraph 51, the Shakers use arguments from the past to justify the virgin life; for example: "Josephus informs us that the Essenes, who maintained the virtue of continence, were many of them favored by divine revelation." Thus the Shaker restriction on marriage and sexual behavior may have had its origins in a historical meme about the Essenes, a sect that also became extinct. The practicalities of this theistic meme meant that to gain new members the Shakers had to rely on adoptions and conversions. The number of Shaker societies grew in the early eighteenth century, but by the time of the Civil War the number of "Believers" began to decline. With fewer members, inadequate management of Shaker assets and land ensued and contributed to the economic decay of the church. Between 1880 and 1900 the Shaker population declined by half. Burns and colleagues (1996) report a newspaper account of 1905 that described the root of the Shaker demise:

It was a case of love at first sight on both sides when they met four years ago, but neither dared to speak to each other . . . One day, as Audette was passing his lover's window, a thimble dropped to the ground. Looking up he saw Miss Thayer in the window. He immediately tore a piece of paper from a notebook, wrote a proposal of marriage, tucked it in the thimble, and tossed it to his sweetheart. Last November Miss T. forsook the Shaker religion and went to Winsted, Ct . . . where they were married in April.

By the mid-twentieth century the membership had dwindled to forty. Soon thereafter the last male member died. The Shakers, unable to sustain their population, became extinct.

The search for the origins of Homo sapiens has led to two extremes of beliefs. Either the human species had a divine origin or, like any other species, it evolved from previous life forms. Although there are those who believe strictly in one position or the other, many have adopted a hybrid position in an attempt to reconcile scientific facts with a belief in divine human creation. The most notable of the latter was Alfred Russell Wallace, co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Wallace believed that all species evolved according to the Darwin-Wallace theory, except the human species. But as the accumulating scientific evidence provided overwhelming validation of the theory, exclusion of humans from a history of evolution by natural selection became untenable. However, large communities still hold to religious beliefs denying human evolution.

In the scientific community, the present-day debate has polarized into those who categorically deny any divine existence or intervention in life's evolutionary origins and those who believe in human evolution but allow the coexistence and credibility of a formalized religious belief. According to the former group, best represented by Richard Dawkins (1976), all life forms and their respective behaviors have been made possible by evolution through the natural selection of genes over the earth's four billion year history. The latter group, best represented by Stephen Jay Gould, acknowledges the fact of evolution but does not concede that religion is irrelevant. Gould (1987) writes, "Unless at least half my colleagues are inconsistent dunces, there can be -on the most raw and direct empirical grounds -no conflict between science and religion. I know hundreds of scientists who share a conviction about the fact of evolution, and teach it in the same way. Among these people I note an entire spectrum of religious attitudes."

Dennett (1996), in reflecting on this passage, concludes that some evolutionary biologists have in effect drawn a cordon sanitaire around the topic of religion and evolution. In this paper I have proposed that religion is a part of human evolutionary history.

Another polarizing issue for evolutionary biologists is the question of the extent to which genes influence human behavior. Dawkins (1976) and Wilson (1989) presume that genes play a major role; Gould (1977) and Dobzhansky (1963) minimize genetic influence on human behavior. Dobzhansky (1963) states,

The first, basic fundamental fact about human evolution is that mankind is simultaneously engaged in two kinds of evolutionary development -the biological and the cultural. Human evolution can be understood only as a product of interaction of these two developments . . . Culture is not inherited through genes, it is acquired by learning from other human beings. In a sense, human genes have surrendered their primacy in human evolution to an entirely new, non-biological or superorgancic agent, culture. However, it should not be forgotten that this agent is entirely dependent on the human genotype.

The classic argument used to define the debate between these two groups, as proposed by Gould (1977), is the self-sacrificing behavior of Eskimos. In some family groups of Eskimos, when food becomes scarce, older family members willingly sacrifice themselves to enhance the survivability of their children and grandchildren. The gene theorists believe this altruistic trait is under direct genetic control. Families with the gene for altruism, whose grandparents increased the survivability of younger generations by sacrificing themselves in times of hardship, have increased fitness. Those lacking the gene are less fit and will likely perish.

That such a complex social strategy could be under genetic control -implying that translation of DNA into a specific protein leads directly to a behavior specific to a particular population -seems implausible. Although genetic influence in certain human behaviors is incontrovertible (Steen 1996), genetic control of all social behaviors and strategies would seem far beyond the functional capability of the genetic code. But if genes do not directly control social behavioral strategies, what does?

Gould's answer, using the scenario of altruism among Eskimos, is that the behavior is an adaptive, nongenetic cultural trait. Some families celebrate sacrifice in song or story, venerating aged grandparents who sacrificed themselves and thus maintaining the capacity for this fitness-enhancing behavior through family generations. Families without such a tradition, passed through stories or legends, could become extinct.

This proposed role of religion in human evolution is in agreement with Benedict's (1989) assumption that the human species has a range of genetically determined behaviors, evolved through natural selection. Within this range of plastic social strategies and behaviors, specific strategies and behaviors are executed not under genetic control but under some sort of societal influence or religious mandate. Religious laws are subject to selection and can evolve to provide the species with greater fitness and reproductive success. The agent affecting fitness is the meme, as conceived by Dawkins: a unit of cultural transmission, propagated from generation to generation as the spoken or written word. Memes resemble genes in that they carry information, can randomly vary, and are subject to selection. Most importantly, they can affect human survivability and fitness. The culturally transmitted songs or stories of which Gould speaks in his explanation of self-sacrifice in Eskimos, and which Dobzhansky calls "new, nonbiological or superorganic agent[s],"are in fact memes.

The model proposed in this paper takes the meme concept further: in some populations, memes have been selected to produce a religious literature that enhances the population's fitness by providing strict codes of conduct and social strategies. The phenotypic expression of behavior is determined first by a broad spectrum of possibilities provided by a genotype; but the specific behavior executed is determined by a theistic meme incorporated in a religious canon.

This model stipulates that religion evolved as a consequence of humans' sophisticated self-awareness. The model recognizes the important contribution of Maser and Gallup (1990) in describing humans' self-awareness as a trait that enhances fitness but also creates the epiphenomenon of an awareness of finiteness and eventual death. At some point in human evolutionary history, self-awareness created a void in humans' interpretation and understanding of their world. At that juncture, the species needed answers to alleviate fears and anxieties arising from awareness of the unknown and death. The god concept filled this void. With the advent of writing some 6000 years ago, the specifics of god and the relationship between humans and god began to take on a permanent, indelible form. These written forms could have three different effects on the fitness of the gene pool: positive, negative, or neutral (no effect). What has been demonstrated here to support this model is that theistic literature has been subject to selection. Fitness-enhancing theistic literature has survived to become canon; fitness-minimizing theistic literature has not survived selection and has become extinct.

The model described here is supported by the unique and remarkable fitness provided by theistic memes in the Jewish canon for several millennia (Table 7). The Hebrew religious canon underwent profound evolutionary changes, providing increasing fitness at four distinct periods in its history. In the formative period, after the Exile (around 1300 bce), the Covenant code and the Decalogue provided the Hebrews with a unique understanding of the relationship with God: all men were equal under a covenant made with a just God. The later Deuteronomic code affirmed this relationship, excluding foreign religious influences and incorporating fitness-enhancing memes about sexual behavior that promoted the nuclear family. Of profound importance in limiting Hebrew fitness, however, was the practice of child sacrifice. Addition to the canon of a strict prohibition of this practice (including the story of Abraham and Isaac), with sacrifice transferred to animals, markedly raised overall fitness. The Holiness code further affected reproductive fitness by severely limiting behaviors such as prostitution, incest, adultery, sodomy, and bestiality and encouraging fitness-enhancing behaviors that perpetuated the nuclear family.

Middle
Babylonian
1750 BCE
Canaanites
1400 BCE
Hebrew
700 BCE
Jewish
1100 CE
Christian (Church of Rome)
1100 CE
Islam
1100 CE
Christian
(Cathars)
1100 CE
Christian
(Shakers)
1800 CE
Christian
(The Peoples Temple)
1977 CE

Self-awareness

Creation yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

God yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Universe yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Man yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Death yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Suicide NS NS against against against against for against for

Afterlife yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Unknowns yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Behavior / God

Ritual

Sacrifice yes yes yes yes no no no no no

-Animal for for for for against against against against against

-Adult against against against against against against against against against

-Child against practiced practiced against against against against against against

Worship yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Behavior /Fellow man

Principle of interaction yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Culpable Negligence yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Murder yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

War yes yes yes yes yes yes no no yes

Behavior/ Nuclear Family

Marriage for for for for for for against against for

Betrothal contracts for for for for for for against against for

Foreign intermarriage NS NS NS against NS NS NS NS NS

Divorce permitted NS permitted permitted against permitted against against against

Parental respect for for for for for for for for for

Behavior / Sexual

Adultery NS against against against against against against against against

Polygamy for for for against against for against against against

Heterosexual sex for for for for for for against against for

Rape against against against against against against against against against

Incest against for against against against against against against against

Homosexual sex NS for against against against against against against against

Bestiality NS for against against against against against against against

Castration NS NS against against against against against against against

Religious Prostitution NS for against against against against against against against

Fitness Index Low /Moderate Low Moderate High High High Low Low Nil

Table 7: Theistic Memetic Types and Fitness Index in Various Religious Canon

Most of the Torah is related to outlining a credible world order: the nature of God, God's credibility, God's relationship to man, and the behaviors necessary to obtain holiness. The great majority of the 613 commandments in the Torah are devoted to these topics. However, in the long and tumultuous history of the Hebrews, the Law had to be modified (mutated) to fit the times. The remarkable stability of the Jewish canon that emerged from the multitude of ancient Near Eastern populations is due to the incorporation of fitness-maximizing theistic memes and the rejection of fitness-minimizing memes. However, the Hebrew population, in its highly stable state of fitness, was confined by laws against intermarriage. Other reproductive populations with less stable fitness were, by self-awareness, at a disadvantage.

The Christian canon enabled gentiles and disaffected Jews to rise to the same level of fitness as the Jewish population (Table 7). The Christian canon, accepted by many populations, was able to overwhelm less stable fitness strategies throughout the Roman Empire. For Arabic populations living with a polytheistic canon, Muhammad created an Arabic Jewish monotheism, incorporating in the Qur'an essentially the same fitness-maximizing theistic memes found in the Hebrew Torah. Through human history, some populations have assumed mutant theistic memes that were detrimental to fitness. The Shakers are a vivid example of a religious population that incorporated the lethal theistic memetic mutation of celibacy.

References

Benedict, R. (1989). Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Blackmore, S. (1999). The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Burns, K., Clay, L., Liebling, J., and Burns, S. A. (1996).The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God; Their History and Visions from 1774 to the Present. New York, London: Aperture, Robert Hale.

Childs, S. B. (1965). The Birth of Moses. Journal of Biblical Literature 84:109-122.

Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dennett, D. C. (1996). Darwin's Dangerous Idea. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Dimont, M. I. (1962). Jews, God, and History. New York: Signet Press.

Dobzhansky, T. (1963). Anthropology and the Natural Sciences -The Problem of Human Evolution. Current Anthropology 4:138-148.

Ehrman, D. B. (1993). The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971). s.v. Commandments, The, 613.

Finegan, J. (1979). Archaeological History of the Ancient Middle East. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Finkelstein, J. J. (1981). The Ox That Gored. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 71:5-47.

Gould, S. J. (1977). Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History. London: Norton and Company.

Gould, S. J. (1987). Darwinism Defined: The Difference between Fact and Theory. Discover, January, 64-70.

Goulder, M. D. (1974). Midrash and Lection in Matthew. London: SPCK.

Hamblin, J. D. (1987). Has the Garden of Eden Been Located at Last? Smithsonian18(2):127-135.

Heidel, A. (1942). The Babylonian Genesis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Heidel, A. (1963). The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Heidel, A. (1970). The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Heylighen, F. (1998). What Makes a Meme Successful? Selection Criteria for Cultural Evolution. Paper presented at 15th International Congress on Cybernetics.

Johnson, P. (1988). A History of the Jews. New York: Harper and Row.

Kramer, S. N. (1972a). Sumerian Mythology: A Review Article. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 51:136-141.

Kramer, S. N. (1972b). Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Maccoby, H. (1982). The Sacred Executioner: Human Sacrifice and the Legacy of Guilt. New York: Thames and Hudson.

Maser, D. J., and Gallup, G. G. Jr. (1990). Theism as a By-product of Natural Selection. Journal of Religion 10:515-532.

Mellor, B. E. (1972). The Making of the Old Testament. Cambridge: University Printing House.

Patrick, D. (1985). Old Testament Law. Atlanta: John Knox Press.

Schmandt-Besserat, D. (1986). An Ancient Token System: The Precursor to Numerals and Writing. Archaeology39(Nov./Dec.):32-39.

Segal A (in press). Charting the Undiscovered Country: Western Views of the Afterlife New York: Doubleday and The Anchor Bible Reference Library.

Shakers (1848). A Summary View of the Millennial Church or United Society of Believers, Commonly Called Shakers, 2nd ed. Albany, NY: Van Benthuysen C Press.

Spong, J. S. (1996). Liberating the Gospels. New York: Harper San Francisco.

Steen, R. G. (1996). DNA and Destiny: Nature and Nurture in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum Press.

Tigay, H. J. (1982). The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Wilson, E. O. (1989). Sociobiology and the Theory of Natural Selection. American Association for the Advancement of Science Symposia 35:257-269.

Back to Issue 1 Volume 5

Passage	Change from	Change to	Meme mutation type
Gilg. P. i, 7/GE 1,v,28	Descended upon me	Keeps descending	Synonyms or words functioning similarly
/GE II, ii, 40	The populace gathered around him	The populace jostles toward him	Synonyms or words functioning similarly
Gilg. P. vi, 14/GE II,ii,47	He did not allow Gilgamesh to enter	He does not allow Gilgamesh to be brought in	Different grammatical and lexical forms of the same word
Gilg. P. ii, 12/GE I, iv, 35	Wild creatures (fem)	Wild creatures (masc)	Different grammatical and lexical forms of the same word
Gilg. P. ii, 16/ GE I, iv, 37	To the pure temple, abode of Anu	To the pure temple, abod of Anu and Ishtar	Added words or phrases
Gilg. P, i, 15, 37/GE I, v, 39; vi, 16	The mother of Gilgamesh, knowing all	The mother of Gilgamesh is wise, knowing, she knows all	Added words or phrases
Gilg. P. I, 10/GE I, v, 31-34	Uruk-land was gathered about it	Uruk-land stands about [it] [The land is gathered] around it, [The popula] ce [jostles] t[oward it], [The men ma]ss against it	Expansion by parallelism
(Gilg. P. ii, 14-18)/(GEI,iv,36-37)	Come let me lead you to Broad-marted Uruk, to the pure temple, the abode of Anu, Enkidu, arise, let me direct you to Eanna, the abode of Anu	Come, let me direct you to Uruk (of?) the sheepfold, to the pure temple, the abode of Anu and Ishtar	Telescoping of parallel lines
Gilg. Mi, iii, 9/GE X, ii, 16-17	Show (me) the path […]	[Now], barmaid, what is the road to Utnapish[tim]?[What is] its [l]andmark!	Reformulation with new idea added
Gilg. P. i, II/GE I, v, 35	The men Kiss his feet	[Like a ba]by, an [in]fant, they kiss his feet	Reformulation with new idea added
Gilg. Y.iv, 2/GE II, v, 2, 5; cf. GEH rev. vi, 12	Seven terrifying haloes	a terror to people…	Reformulation with meaning changed completely
Gil. P.Y.vi, 15-16/GE II, ii, 48	They grappled with each other, like champions (lit. victors)they bent the knee	They grappled with each other in the gate of the marital chamber	Reformulation with meaning changed completely
C, I, from Gilg. P. ii, 16, 18 and GE 1, iv 37, 44	“Abode of Anu and Ishtar”	“Abode of Anu”	Change due to Religious Ideology: The deliberate omission of Ishtar in the Old Babylonian version is related to an antipathy toward Ishtar/Inanna’s unfavorable portrayal reflected in the Bull and Heaven episode.

	*Gilgamesh Epic*	*Old Testament*
Author	Enlil, the Sumeria god of Babylonia.	God
Reason	In (Tablet XI:14) the heart of the great gods prompted them to bring a deluge	In (Gen. 6:1-13) The earth was corrupt before God and was filled with violence because of man, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.
Hero	The Summerian account calls him Ziusudra meaning "he who laid hold on life of distant days." Other versions call him Atrahasis meaning "the exceedingly wise."	Noah meaning "rest.". (Gen. 6:9).
Announcement	Ea appears to the Utnapishtim telling him to abandon his possessions and to build a ship with certain specifications and take into it every seed of life. (Tablet XI:19-31). This revelation was made contrary to Enlil's plan and without his knowledge. (Tablet XI:173).	In(Gen7:1), God communicates with Noah. “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.”
Period of Grace.	There was no thought of granting mankind an opportunity to repent. According to Atrahasis Epic man was granted several periods of grace before Enlil determined to destroy humankind by means of a flood.	Gen. 6:3, Man was granted period of grace one hundred and twenty years.
Ark and Dimensions	Elippu, meaning"a great vessel," "boat," "ship." Utnapishtim's boat , length height, and width were 120 cubits, seven stories.	Ark is "teba" related to the Egyptian db't meaning, "box," "chest," "coffin." Noah's ark was "three hundred cubits, its breath fifty cubits, and it's height thirty cubits" (Gen. 6:15). Noah's ark had 3 stories.
Occupants	Utnapishtim loaded aboard all he had of "the seed of all living creatures," " the game of the field, the beasts of the field, all the craftsmen," (Tablet XI: 80-85 and 94-95).	Gen. 6:19-21: " of every living thing, of all flesh, thou shalt bring two of every into the ark to keep them alive with thee; they shall bea male and a female. Of the birds......" " And Noah, with his sons, his wife, and the wives of his sons, went into the ark, because of the waters of the flood."
Flood Begins	Tablets silent on this point.	"In the sixth hundredth year of Noah's life , in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that very day all the fountains of the great deep (tehom) were broken open, and the windows of the heavens were opened" (Gen. 7:11).
Cause	The destructive forces listed in the Summerian tablet are amuru, meaning "rainstorm," rain flood," or "cloudburst," and mighty winds. These two elements accompanied by thunder and lightning are mentioned in the Gilgamesh Epic.	Torrential rains from the heaven and the eruption of the subterranean waters. (7:11-12).
Duration	Rained in the evening followed by a storm that lasted for six days and six nights.	For forty days and forty nights it rained upon the earth. (Gen 7:11)
Storm magnitude	"As soon as the first shimmer of the morning beamed forth, a black cloud came up from out the horizon."	" The waters increased and lifted the ark, so that it rose above the earth.....the waters grew exceedingly strong upon the earth; and all the mountains under the whole heaven were covered."
Ark Landing	Mount Nisir, " mount of Salvation."	" on one of the mountains of Ararat."
Bird Scene	Utnapishtim released a dove for testing the subsidence of the water on the seventh day after the landing at Mount Nisir.	Forty days after the tops of the mountains had become visible, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent forth a raven. (Genesis 8:5-7). Having waited seven more days, Noah released another dove, which did not come back until toward evening. (8:10-11) After another seven days, Noahsent out a third dove , but she never returned (8:12) Also this was a good sign; It showed that the lowlands as well as the mountains were free of water
Exit from the Ark	"sent forth to the four winds"	God said to Noah, "Go forth of the ark , thou and thy wife, thy sons and the wives of thy sons with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee.....and be fruitful and multiply on the earth" (8:16-17)
Sacrifice	Utnapishtim prostrated himself before the sun-god and offered up an Ox and an abundant sacrifice of sheep.	Noah built an alter unto the Lordand offered burnt-offerings "of every clean beast and of every clean fowl" (8:20).
Divine Blessings	Removal from the ken of mortal man	Man may not be slain in impunity either by man or by beast (Gen. 9:1-7)

		Middle Babylonian 1750 BCE	Canaanites 1400 BCE	Hebrew 700 BCE	Jewish 1100 CE	Christian (Church of Rome) 1100 CE	Islam 1100 CE	Christian (Cathars) 1100 CE	Christian (Shakers) 1800 CE	Christian (The Peoples Temple) 1977 CE
*Self-awareness*
Creation		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
God		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Universe		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Man		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Death		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Suicide		NS	NS	against	against	against	against	for	against	for
Afterlife		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Unknowns		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
*Behavior / God*
Ritual
Sacrifice		yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	no
-Animal		for	for	for	for	against	against	against	against	against
-Adult		against	against	against	against	against	against	against	against	against
-Child		against	practiced	practiced	against	against	against	against	against	against
Worship		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
*Behavior /Fellow man*
Principle of interaction		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Culpable Negligence		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Murder		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
War		yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no	yes
*Behavior/ Nuclear Family*
Marriage		for	for	for	for	for	for	against	against	for
Betrothal contracts		for	for	for	for	for	for	against	against	for
Foreign intermarriage		NS	NS	NS	against	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS
Divorce		permitted	NS	permitted	permitted	against	permitted	against	against	against
Parental respect		for	for	for	for	for	for	for	for	for
*Behavior / Sexual*
Adultery		NS	against	against	against	against	against	against	against	against
Polygamy		for	for	for	against	against	for	against	against	against
Heterosexual sex		for	for	for	for	for	for	against	against	for
Rape		against	against	against	against	against	against	against	against	against
Incest		against	for	against	against	against	against	against	against	against
Homosexual sex		NS	for	against	against	against	against	against	against	against
Bestiality		NS	for	against	against	against	against	against	against	against
Castration		NS	NS	against	against	against	against	against	against	against
Religious Prostitution		NS	for	against	against	against	against	against	against	against
Fitness Index	Low /Moderate		Low	Moderate	High	High	High	Low	Low	Nil