Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA09957 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 2 Jun 2000 03:55:51 +0100 Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000601214043.00d499d0@popmail.mcs.net> X-Sender: aaron@popmail.mcs.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.1 Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2000 21:52:04 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net> Subject: Re: Fwd: [COMPLEX-M] "Intelligent Design" lobby Congress against Darwinism Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="=====================_29480950==_.ALT" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
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Thank you for forwarding this material, Ilfryn.
I also spoke about evolution in the Seattle area last month--at a less
public event--and addressed some of the Darwinian processes that ironically
gave rise to the Congressional hearings and the other anti-Darwinian
actions taken at state and local levels in the USA. My talk, titled "Human
Destiny and the Evolutionary Epidemiology of Ideas," was given at the May
18-19 Cultural Evolution Workshop of the Foundation for the Future's Center
for Human Evolution in Bellevue, WA.
The section where I discussed certain forces in the evolutionary
epidemiology of ideas that give rise to growing anti-Darwinism reads as
follows:
"...In the area of religious belief, ideas that cause adherents to have
more children, or to engage in more evangelism, or to shut out alternative
ideas tend to gain population over time. Having children and evangelizing
are examples of transmissivity, while shutting out alternative ideas
confers longevity of belief. One consequence of the cultural evolution
forces favoring large family sizes is overpopulation and consequent
environmental degradation around the world. In addition, evangelical
Christianity has gained enormous influence in recent decades here in the
United States by growing at just 2.5% per year. As a fraction of the
growing US population, this amounts to 0.5% per year, with the current
prevalence at 44%. [footnote 5] Among the consequences are interference
with the teaching of evolution theory. Decreased availability of abortion
and contraception is has also apparently started to happen, especially for
the poor. The widespread reading of the Book of Revelation has also led to
dark paranoia about other countries and international organizations such as
the United Nations. Such factors may threaten the prospects for peace and
international cooperation. ..."
I also discuss how the evolutionary epidemiology of ideas is eroding
acceptance of evolution theory in my book Thought Contagion. The chapter
"Successful Cults: Western Religion by Natural Selection" closes with the
following:
Religion and Science Revisited
Numerous thinkers have suggested that modern scientific knowledge
would push all religion toward extinction. Yet old religions continue to
defy such forecasts. Moreover, new and vigorous religious movements
continually form. Many once thought that the theory of evolution by natural
selection would spell the end of religious myths. Yet the very phenomenon
of evolution by natural selection easily propels religions past the minor
challenges raised by scientific ideas. Even evolutionism loses popular
ground to divine creationism in modern times.
Memetic analysis of religion illuminates a stark contrast between
religious and scientific thought: religious thought generally holds that
certain special beliefs are divinely created. Memetic science contends that
great religions evolve from a vast accumulation of observable, mundane,
human actions. The creation-evolution conflict thus opens a new front: the
origin of religions.
Also somewhat ironically, the growth statistics quoted in my recent talk
are consistent with the complex non-linear mathematics for the
evolutionary epidemiology of ideas that I discuss in "Units, Events, and
Dynamics in Memetic Evolution" at
http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/lynch_a.html, and in the
post-publication commentary at
http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/UEDerrata_addenda.html. As noted in the
post-publication commentary, none of this analysis depends upon having the
word "meme": the whole paper can be re-titled "Units, Events, and Dynamics
in the Evolutionary Epidemiology of Ideas," and, like the book, can be
written without the word "meme."
--Aaron Lynch
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