Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id KAA06917 (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 10:50:26 GMT Message-ID: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF230041106@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl> From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: religion/spirituality Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 11:45:35 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Vincent:
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
Derek:
Of course, the historical facts are not under dispute, but how do you
proceed from these facts to confirm or refute the 'mind virus' concept? It
seems to me that people simply like the 'mind virus' concept and are
determined to stick with it regardless. The problems about monotheism not
always being a faster propagater than polytheism, and about religions that
apparently don't propagate at all very well, are continually qualified as
special cases. How many ad hoc qualfications does the mind virus theory
need?
Or let me turn the question on its head. What would the characteristics be
of a religion that _isn't_ a mind virus? If mind virology really is
scientific, then such a thing ought to be at least describable within the
terms of the theory, even if it doesn't exist. If it's not even describable
then you have a situation perilously close to tautology.
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 22 2000 - 10:52:46 GMT