Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id KAA06769 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 22 Nov 2000 10:28:23 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745B2D@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: religion/spirituality Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 10:26:05 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
<Derek:
<snip> What I'm asking is why there wasn't a religion that was
identical to Judaism but
> simply added horizontal propagation. If religion is a virus, and if
> cultural change really does operate in an analogous way to genetic change,
> such a thing ought to appear, eventually.>
>
I think this is a very fair question.
I think it's a context question, not a content question, a bit like
the variations in syphillis you mentioned. As a skin disease it's
non-fatal, as a venereal disease it is, and environmental conditions (such
as promiscuity rates) effect the incidence of the latter form. Hence also
why the amerindians had mostly the non-fatal forms, but when colonists
arrived, with their different lifestyles, the fatal variety ended up
ravaging large parts of Europe. Perhaps the conditions simply didn't favour
the survival of a horizontally transmitting judaism, and/or perhaps
christianity got there first?
Christianity is, in many regards, a variant of Judaism, and Islam a
variant of both (same line of prophets, they just stop at a different
person). Of course which one is more fatal, well....
Vincent
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